Indian of the Snake Tribe

  • This painting centers on a Snake Indian smoking. He is unarmed, having piled his weapons nearby, and sits in a relaxed posture. His left hand is draped familiarly over a dog and in his right hand he holds a pipe. Joan Troccoli suggests that this painting is likely a dramatized illustration for a passage from Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man, not a specific portrait of a Snake Indian and his canine companion. (Troccoli, 31)

    Karen B. McWhorter

    Artist
    Alfred Jacob Miller
    Date
    ca. 1858 – 1860
    Catalogue Number
    454
    Medium
    Watercolor, gouache, glazes, pen and ink, and graphite on paper
    Inscriptions

    LL: AJM. UL: Indian of the Snake/Tribe.

    Dimensions
    10 5/16 x 8 5/16 (26.2 x 21.1 cm)
    Accession Number
    0236.1052
    Subjects
    Indians, Snake Indians

    The artist; by descent to L. Vernon Miller; M. Knoedler and Company, New York, NY; Thomas Gilcrease, Tulsa, OK; present owner by gift