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Gallery Text

This portrait is tied to a larger early nineteenth-century effort to document indigenous cultures believed to be on the edge of extinction. Little Elk is one of the almost two hundred portraits of Native American leaders that Charles Bird King painted for Thomas McKenney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the U.S. War Department. An outspoken champion of westward expansion and a strong advocate for Indian removal, McKenney aspired “to collect whatever of the aboriginal man can be rescued from the ultimate destruction which awaits his race.”

Little Elk sat for King while he was in Washington, DC, to negotiate a treaty on behalf of the Winnebago tribe of Illinois and Wisconsin. King portrayed his subject as an appeased warrior. The hands painted on his chest boast of his battlefield exploits, while the presidential peace medal around his neck, a ceremonial gift from the War Department, signals his loyalty to the United States.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2023.211
People
Charles Bird King, American (Newport, RI 1785 - 1862 Washington, DC)
Title
Hoowanneka (Little Elk), Ho-Chunk (Winnebago)
Other Titles
Former Title: Hoo-Wan-Ne-Ka ("Little Elk")
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1828
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/333025

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
45.1 x 35.2 cm (17 3/4 x 13 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
David I. Bushnell, Jr.; to his mother, Belle J. Bushnell; her bequest to Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 1946, transferred; to Harvard Art Museums, 2023

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, gift of the Estate of Belle J. Bushnell, 1941
Accession Year
2023
Object Number
2023.211
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • William J. Rhees, An Account of the Smithsonian Institution: its founder, building, operations, etc. (Washington, D.C., 1859), p. 56, no. 58
  • William Garrott Brown, A List of Portraits in the Various Buildings of Harvard University, Harvard University Library (Cambridge, MA, 1898), p. 23
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, "Relocation and Evaluation of the Bushnell Collection of Paintings and Other Works by Early American Artists at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology" (unpublished manuscript, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 1971)., p. 8
  • Louise Todd Ambler and Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, "American Painting at Harvard", Antiques (New York, NY, November 1972), vol. 102, no. 5, pp. 876-883, p. 879-880, fig. 11
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 38, ill.
  • G. Verona Taylor Whatmough, "The Bushnell Collection of Paintings and Other Works by Early American Artists" (unpublished manuscript, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 1973)., p. 45, no. 417
  • Mead Art Museum, Cowboys, Indians, Trappers and Traders, exh. cat. (Amherst, MA, 1973)
  • Herman J. Viola, The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, D.C., 1976), pp. 82-83, ill.
  • Andrew J. Cosentino, The Paintings of Charles Bird King, 1785-1862, Smithsonian Institution for the National Collection of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C, 1977), pp. 62-63, 169, cat. 339, ill. p. 62 as fig. 43
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 30, 326-28, cat. 291, ill.

Exhibition History

  • American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
  • Cowboys, Indians, Trappers & Traders, Amherst College, Amherst, 02/01/1973 - 02/28/1973
  • The Persistence of Memory: Continuity and Change in American Cultures, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/29/1995 - 05/13/2001
  • 32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 11/14/2022

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu