Charles Bird King drawings
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA INV 09123400

NAA INV 09123500

NAA 2023-04
label: Publication Note
content: The drawings were published in:

Cosentino, Andrew J. (1977) The Paintings of Charles Bird King. Washington, DC: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution.

Viola, Herman J. (1976) The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
name: label: Creator
content: King, Charles Bird, 1785-1862
place: label: Place
content: North America
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The drawings are two of sixteen charcoal portraits of Native leaders discovered in 1974 among family papers by Bayard LeRoy King, a descendant of Edward King, second cousin of Charles Bird King.  They were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Bayard LeRoy King in 1981.
creator: label: Creator
content: King, Charles Bird, 1785-1862
culture: label: Culture
content: Chaticks Si Chaticks (Pawnee)
label: Culture
content: Iowa
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Charles Bird King (1785–1862) was an American portrait artist, best known for his portrayals of Native American leaders and tribesmen.  He studied portraiture under Edward Savage in New York and later with Benjamin West at the Royal Academy in London. Upon his return to America in 1812, he spent several years traveling the East Coast in search of portrait commissions. In 1819 he opened a studio and gallery in Washington, where he painted many prominent political figures including John Quincy Adams, John Calhoun, Henry Clay, James Monroe, and Daniel Webster. Commissioned by the federal government, King painted more than one hundred portraits of Indian delegates, representing at least twenty tribes, who visited the capital from 1821 to 1842. He exhibited the portraits at the Smithsonian Institution until the paintings were destroyed by fire in 1865.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Drawings (visual works) (charcoal on grey paper, framed, 5.75 x 8.25 inches in 13.5 x 16.25 inch frame; 5.75 x 9.25 inches in 13.5 x 17.25 inch frame)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1822
container: label: Container
content: Item 1
label: Container
content: Item 2
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2023-04
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Graphic Materials
label: Type
content: Drawings (visual works)
label: Type
content: Works of art
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Portraits
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Works of art
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
label: Genre/Form
content: Portraits
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of two (2) charcoal drawings by Charles Bird King.  The drawings depict Moanahonga (Great Walker), Iowa and Sharitarish (Wicked Chief), Pawnee, and were likely studies for paintings later completed by King.

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.