Iroquois Indian

Generously provided by The Walters Art Museum

This painting represents Miller’s only portrait of an Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Indian. Miller wrote, “We met but very few of them.” (Rough Draughts, 61) George Catlin also depicted only one Iroquois man, whom he identified as Nót-to-way, in 1835 – 1836. Aside from his feathered hairpiece, Miller’s subject is dressed in clothing more typical of Plains Indian tribes than of the Iroquois, whose constituent tribes’ traditional homeland was in New York and southern Canada.

Karen McWhorter

Artist

Alfred Jacob Miller

Date

ca. 1858 – 1860

Catalogue Number

306

Medium

Watercolor on paper

Inscriptions

LL: AJMiller. LR: 61.

The artist; William T. Walters, Baltimore, MD; present owner by gift