HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



a letter from James Barbour, who succeeded Calhoun as Secretary 

 of War on March 7, 1825, three months after the first order for Indian 

 portraits was made, for Barbour wrote in 1832 that McKenney him- 

 self had suggested "the expediency of preserving the likenesses of 

 some of the most distinguished among this most extraordinary race 

 of people. Believing, as I did, that this race was about to become 

 extinct, and that a faithful resemblance of the most remarkable among 

 them would be full of interest in after times, I cordially approved of 

 the measure. This duty was assigned to Mr King, of Washington, an 

 artist of acknowledged reputation; he executed it with fidelity and 

 success, by producing the most exact resemblances, including the 

 costume of each." 



We have already referred to the journey of McKenney and Cass 

 for the purpose of negotiating the Chippewa treaty at Fond du Lac 

 in August, 1826. It was then that the artist Lewis took further 

 incidental part in the establishment of an Indian portrait gallery, for 

 during his association with the treaty commissioners he painted 

 numerous portraits, as well as a few scenes from Indian life, some 

 of which, as mentioned before, were crudely reproduced as illustra- 

 tions of McKenney's Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes. What became 

 of the original paintings or drawings by Lewis, of which there were 

 at least eighty-five, has not been determined, but seventy-two of 

 them were used in illustrating an Aboriginal Port-Folio published by 

 the artist in 1835, and King made copies of at least twenty-five of the 

 principal originals for the Indian Gallery in 1826 and 1827, while an 

 artist named A. Ford made six others for the same purpose in 1826. 

 In his Aboriginal Port-Folio Lewis states that he "had the honor to 

 be employed by the Indian Department expressly for the purpose" 

 of making the portraits, adding: "As regards the merits of their 

 general character, and the fidelity of the costume, he can with con- 

 fidence assure the public, that the resemblances of both are faithfully 

 and accurately given." If we may judge by the hand-colored repro- 

 ductions in the artist's Port-Folio, however, his work was hardly 

 worthy of such laudation. Commenting on these illustrations, School- 

 craft, writing in 1836, said: "He [Lewis] has painted the Indian linea- 

 ments on the spot, and is entitled to patronage — not as supplying all 

 that is desirable and practicable perhaps, but as a first and original 

 effort." 



In addition to his original portraits of members of visiting deputa- 

 tions of Indians to Washington, and the copies made from Lewis's 

 paintings or drawings, King evidently continued industriously with 

 brush and palette, with slight intermissions, until 1837, while the 



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