Charles Bird King 1785 - 1862

Herman Viola, The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King, Washington, DC, 1976, p. 130, illustrated; finished portrait illustrated, p. 100 

Work was not examined out of frame as edges show clearly and are intact; in good condition generally; a few scattered light stains/specks of foxing
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The present drawing was used as a study for the finished portrait of Amiskquew ("The Spoon") in the collection of the Gulf States Corporation (fig. 1).

Charles Bird King's legacy lies in his meticuloulsly detailed portraits of Native American Indians.  From the 1820s to the 1840s the Bureau of Indian Affairs commissioned the artist to paint portraits of the dwindling Native American population. His portraits were mostly of dignitaries visiting Washington D.C. who had come to negotiate trade deals with the U.S. Government, as in the case of the present work.

King was born in Newport, Rhode Island as the only child of Deborah Bird and American Revolutionary veteran Captain Zebulon King. The family traveled west, but when Charles was four years old, his father was killed and scalped by Native Americans in Ohio. He studied art in New York and furthered his studies in London under Benjamin West at the Royal Academy.