Philip King of Mount Hope

Early New Englanders knew the Native American chief Metacomet as King Philip. As the leader of the Wampanoag people around Narragansett Bay, he rallied the area’s tribes to respond aggressively as members of the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies repeatedly broke treaties with the local tribes and pushed westward. "King Philip’s War" broke out in June 1675, with raids and battles fought from the Connecticut River Valley north into Maine. Three years of fighting reduced the Native population by half and rendered survivors effectively landless. Colonial settlements also suffered extensive damage, with adult male numbers decimated, the economy ruined, and the western frontier pushed back eastward by miles. A century later, Revere produced this portrait to illustrate Thomas Church's "entertaining" history, an account that glosses over the war’s actual cost. A copy of the book in Museum’s collection (24.90.1876) includes an impression of the portrait print bound near a description of King Philip.　The conflict cast a long shadow and encouraged tribes, a century later, to support the British during the American Revolution, believing that this would lead to the restoration of their ancestral lands.

Revere depicts Metacomet dressed in regalia that communicates his royal status, standing before a band of warriors with Mount Hope in the distance. With no portrait of the subject to consult, Revere turned to mezzotints that the British engraver John Simon made around 1750 of Mohawk and Mohican tribal leaders from the Algonquin nations who had visited London in 1710. Those "Four Indian Kings" were honored by Queen Anne and painted by Jan Vereist (Portrait Gallery of Canada), with Simon’s prints reproducing the latter. Metacomet's assertive stance, short open-necked tunic, cloak, moccasins, and rifle correspond to details in the 1750 mezzotints　while his wampum belts, two powder horns and star-shaped neck ornament respond to a description in Church's book.