Existing comment:
George Catlin
Ru-ton-ye-wee-ma, Strutting Pigeon, Wife of White Cloud
1844
oil on canvas
The White Cloud, the chief of this group of Iowa, chose the others who traveled with him to Europe. Catlin painted his wife, Ru-ton-ye-wee-ma with their daughter, Ta-pa-ta-me (Wisdom). The young girl looks straight at the viewer, while her mother's gaze is deliberately oblique. Ta-pa-ta-me reaches for the strands of hair-pipe beads around her mother's neck, which are interwoven with multiple glass bead necklaces. A thin silver chain, from which dangles a delicate silver cross, encircles her mother's throat.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison Jr., 1985.66.525 |