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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

More Artwork
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John Adams, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Conté crayon, charcoal (?), and white-chalk heightening on off-white laid paper coated with gouache, American
John Adams
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1800–1801
Dyer Sharp Wynkoop, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Conté rayon, charcoal (?), and white chalk heightening on off-white laid paper coated with gouache, American
Dyer Sharp Wynkoop
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1800
Jean-Victor Moreau, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Charcoal (?), Conté crayon, and white-chalk heightening on off-white laid paper coated with gouache, American
Jean-Victor Moreau
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
ca. 1806 or 1811
Portrait of a Man, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Conté crayon, charcoal (?), graphite and white-chalk heightening on off-white laid paper coated with gouache, American
Portrait of a Man
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1797–98
Alexander Rider (?), Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Conté crayon, charcoal (?), and white-chalk heightening on off-white laid paper coated with gouache, American
Alexander Rider (?)
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1808–9

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