CHARLES BIRD KING EWERS 467 



exhibition in tlie art gallery of the Smithsonian building until most of 

 the art collection was destroyed by fire, January 15, 1865. 



It is fortunate that Charles Bii'd King painted replicas of a num- 

 ber of the Indian portraits he had created for the Government collec- 

 tion. Some subjects he copied more than once. Two replicas of 

 The Eagle of Delight, for example, have been preserved. Careful 

 study of these portraits (pi. 3) indicates that the two paintings 

 differ somewhat in detail. This suggests that King's replicas may not 

 be meticulous duplicates of the originals. 



King's originals also were copied by other artists. In the early 

 1830's Henry Inman copied in oil a majority of the Indian paintings 

 in the Government collection. These copies are now preserved in the 

 Peabody Museum of Harvard University. From Inman's copies col- 

 ored lithographs were prepared for McKenney and Hall's "History of 

 the Indian Tribes of North America," published by Key and Biddle 

 of Philadelphia, 1836-44. These large, handsome, I914- by 13l^-inch 

 plates are now collector's items. In the form of these lithographic 

 reproductions many of King's Indian portraits have survived. 



Contemporaries of Charles Bird King made no rash claims for his 

 artistic genius. Nevertheless, they had respect for his technical skill. 

 Thomas Sully, who roomed with King in London, termed him "the 

 most industrious person I ever met" and the possessor of "much me- 

 chanical skill." Dunlap decried King's use of a mechanical gadget to 

 measure the proportions of his sitter's features and appendages. 

 Tuckerman thought King's paintings were "not remarkable for artistic 

 superiority, but often curious and valuable likenesses, especially the 

 Indian portraits." (Dunlap, 1834, vol. 2, pp. 261-262; Tuckerman, 

 1867, p. 68.) 



Since many of Charles Bird King's portraits of prominent Indians 

 are the only known representations of the physical appearance of 

 those individuals, it is important that we try to appraise his ability to 

 execute true likenesses of his Indian sitters. Perhaps we should not 

 give too much weight to the opinions of his contemporaries regarding 

 this matter, for it is unlikely that the most competent critics of his 

 time had opportunities to compare King's portraits with the features 

 of the living Indians who posed for him. Certainly some of King's 

 Indians appear to display rather marked Caucasian features. In 

 some cases this characteristic may properly be attributed to the fact 

 that the Indians themselves were mixed-bloods. In other cases that 

 possibility appears remote. For example, King's portrait titled "As- 

 siniboin Indian, from the Most Remote Tribe That Had ever Visited 

 Washington previous to 1938," is almost certainly intended to be a 

 likeness of The Light, the Assiniboin who came to Washington in 

 1831-32, whose tragic experiences resulting from that visit were enter- 

 tainingly described by George Catlin and other contemporaries. 



