Artist: Charles Bird King

Today most people are familiar with the Native American portraits of George Catlin, perhaps because so many of his works have survived and have been recopied again and again.  In their day, Charles Bird King (1785-1862), was considered the Dean of the Native American Painters, not only because of the quality of his work, but his proximity to government officials and the assignments he received through them.

King was born in Newport, RI.  The family migrated west but, when King was four years old, his father was killed by Native Americans and the mother brought her young children back to Newport.  King studied under New York painter Edward Savage, and later traveled to London to work under Benjamin West.  The War of 1812 brought him back to America, where he drifted to studious in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Richmond before deciding to base in Washington, D.C.  He hoped that by being so close to the seat of power, he would capture the patronage of wealthy clientele needing portraits.  He eventually painted portraits of John Quincy and Louisa Adams, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and many others.  At that time, painting Native portraits was the last thing on his mind.

Enter Thomas McKinney, head of the BIA in Washington, D.C.  Like Catlin and many others, McKinney believed that the Natives were rapidly becoming extinct and believed that careful imaging and cataloging of tribes and artifacts was the last best hope for preserving some vestige of their society.  Because of his position in the government, McKinney met many leaders and prominent Native people, and achieved a priceless collection of artifacts but he felt more was needed.  He turned to King and asked if he would be interested in painting portraits on commission for the BIA.  King agreed.  Unlike Catlin and others of the genre, he did not go out West and paint the Natives in the home environment.  They came to him.  Part of any diplomatic rotation in Washington, no matter whether the emissaries were Native or not, was a round of sittings with prominent artists.  For Natives, that meant a stop in King's studio, where he painted many Native notables of the day whose images might otherwise be lost.  Red Jacket, Pushmataha, Cherokee leaders John and Major Ridge and many others.  Later McKinney, who was compiling an encyclopedia of Native tribes, asked King to do the lithographs for it. 

After McKinney left the BIA, the agency severed its ties with King and donated his works to the National Institute, where shoddy upkeep nearly destroyed them.  In 1858, his work was donated to the Smithsonian Institution.  In 1865, a fire swept through the gallery containing works by King and John Mix Stanley and only a few works by each were saved.  Fortunately, most of King's lithographs were saved by being published in the companion book to McKinney's encyclopedia.  King died in Washington, D.C. in 1862.