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Osage Warrior

1805–7
Not on view
Between 1803 and 1810 Saint-Mémin worked in the United States, producing hundreds of portraits of political leaders and élite society. In Washington, D.C., he met members of three delegations of Plains Indians who visited the capital between 1804 and 1807 at President Thomas Jefferson’s invitation, following the acquisition of their land through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Saint-Mémin made fifteen depictions of men from several tribes during these visits.

"Osage Warrior" is based on a drawing that Saint-Mémin made with a physionotrace, a device that mechanically reproduced an outline of a sitter’s profile. The artist then transferred the image to this sheet and painted it in watercolor, rendering his subject’s individualized facial features with delicate stippling and cross-hatching. The warrior wears beaded wampum ear-drops and silver ear rim bands, and his scalp is shaved except for a dyed lock of hair.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Osage Warrior
  • Artist: Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770–1852)
  • Date: 1805–7
  • Geography: Made in France
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper
  • Dimensions: 7 1/4 x 6 7/16 in. (18.4 x 16.4 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1954
  • Object Number: 54.82
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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View of the City and Harbour of New York taken from Mount Pitt, the Seat of John R. Livingston, Esq., Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Etching and watercolor
View of the City and Harbour of New York taken from Mount Pitt, the Seat of John R. Livingston, Esq.
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1796
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters, Eugène Delacroix French, Watercolor over graphite on wove paper
Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters
Eugène Delacroix
1832
Charles Saint-Mémin's American Passport, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Letterpress and pen and ink
Charles Saint-Mémin's American Passport
Subject Issued to Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
Author Signed by Robert Smith
June 30, 1810
The Connoisseur, Honoré Daumier French, Pen and ink, wash, watercolor, lithographic crayon, and gouache over black chalk on wove paper
The Connoisseur
Honoré Daumier
ca. 1860–65

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