Wakechai (Crouching Eagle) a Saukie Chief Lithograph With Applied Watercolor by Charles Bird King

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1842 Wakechai (Crouching Eagle) A Saukie Indian Chief Lithograph with Applied Watercolor

The lithograph depicts Wakechai, also known as Crouching … Read more 1842 Wakechai (Crouching Eagle) A Saukie Indian Chief Lithograph with Applied Watercolor

The lithograph depicts Wakechai, also known as Crouching Eagle, who was a member of the Sauk and Fox delegation. King renders Wakechai with exceptional detail. The Saukie Chief is adorned with fine accoutrements such as a white fur robe, silver arm band, glass bead pendant and black headpiece with ostrich feathers. Thomas McKenney, United States Superintendent of Indian Trade, conceived the idea for a series of portraits of prominent Native Americans who visited Washington D.C. in the early 19th century. An established portraitist by the early 1820s, King was commissioned by McKenney to execute the series, resulting in rich character studies of his sitters. Members of the Indian delegation of 1825, such as this sitter, often received copies of their portraits.

The Sauk, also known as the Sac, are a Native American tribe that lived in the Great Lakes region of the United States. They were part of the Algonquian language family and were closely related to the Fox and Kickapoo tribes.

Published by Daniel Rice & James G Clark. Philad.a
"Drawn, Printed and Colored at the Lithographic & Print Colouring Establish. 94 Walnut St. Phil"
"Entered according to act of Congress in the Year 1842 by James G. Clark, in the Cl.s Off.c of the Dis.t Ct of the Eastern Dist of Penn.a"

Condition: Very good; tonal aging due to age.
Presented in new conservation mat
Paper size: 19.75"H X 14"W
Image size: 16"H x 12"W
Mat size:24.3/8"H x 19.7/8"W

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Charles Bird King became famous for his portraits of distinguished Native Americans. He studied with Samuel King, colonial painter, and then at age 15, ran away to New York City where he worked in the studio of Edward Savage. From 1805 to 1812, he lived in London, studying with Benjamin West and sharing a studio with Thomas Sully.

In 1816, he settled in Washington D.C., becoming the city's first significant resident artist. He did portraits of politicians and then spent 16 years on a commission to paint members of a five-tribe Indian delegation, which came to the city in 1821. The results became the basis of the National Indian Portrait Gallery. The originals burned, but lithography copies remain.

Thomas McKenney was the Superintendent of Indian Affairs under three Presidents -- Madison, Monroe & Adams and was instrumental in having lithographs published of King's work. McKenney's persistence was a blessing to the following generations because it happened that most of the original Charles Bird King paintings were destroyed in a fire at the then new Smithsonian Institution in 1865. So the only record we have today of most of these early Indians are in fact the lithographs made by McKenney. They stand as some of the finest and most important prints ever made in America.

A visitor to his office in the War Department near the White House would have seen a carefully collected ‘museum’ of Indian artifacts. There were buffalo hides, ceremonial pipes, clothing and even a full size canoe over the doorway. Importantly, there were also portrait paintings of many of the tribal Chiefs and Sub-Chiefs that had come to Washington to meet the Great White Father, accept gifts and peace medals and sign peace treaties. Most of these portraits were done by the well known artist Charles Bird King.

The ritual of inviting the Indian Chiefs to Washington was one of the original stated missions of the Lewis & Clark Expedition brilliantly initiated by Thomas Jefferson. The underlying strategy presented to a hesitant Congress by Jefferson was to not only explore the vast continent West of the Mississippi for future settlement but more immediately to control the rivers and fur trade that had been previously dominated by French and English interests.

However, McKenney’s ideas of treating the Indians fairly and with respect were ideologically not in line with the policies of the Andrew Jackson administration and therefore he was forced to resign his post in 1830. By this time, however, he had already had the idea of making a series of lithographs after the collection of Indian portraits. It was a project that took him the next fourteen years to complete -- through years of near bankruptcy, numerous printers and emotional distress.

His persistence was a blessing to the following generations because it happened that most of the original Charles Bird King paintings were destroyed in a fire at the then new Smithsonian Institution in 1865. So the only record we have today of these early Indians are in fact the lithographs made by McKenney. They stand as some of the finest and most important prints ever made in America. See less