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Charles Bird King
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Commissioned by the Department of War, then administered by Secretary Calhoun, King began his Indian portraits in the winter of 1821-1822 with the arrival of a delegation of Indian chiefs (whom Calhoun sought to befriend in order to realize the goals of his "Missouri Expedition") from the Great Plains tribes of the Upper Missouri River. Except for commissions given to artists in the field and to several assistants called upon when the number of delegates was too numerous for him to handle, King continued to receive, almost exclusively, orders to paint portraits of important Indian delegates at the capital until 1842, when financial problems, prejudicial political opposition, and the development of the camera effectively denied the need for such paintings. During these twenty years, King painted about 143 portraits, most of which were completed by 1830, for which he received some $3,5OO.
All of the Indian portraits were destined for the "Indian Gallery," a collection of Indian memorabilia originated as early as 1816 by Thomas L. McKenney, chief of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, although the idea of including portraits in the gallery may have originated with King, who was long experienced with art collections. Referred to as the "Kickapoo Ambassador," McKenney had a profound understanding of and sympathy for Indians and their rapidly disappearing culture. His interest was perhaps best expressed by his adoption of two Indian boys and by the policy he established for government trade with the Indians, which, as he put it, was engaged in not for profit but for the sake of "pure humanity ... to sustain ... refresh, and bless the Indians." Of course this policy was vehemently opposed by the powerful fur companies that sought to dominate trade with the Indians, and by President Jackson, who dismissed McKenney in 1830.
By that year, King had already completed 130 Indian portraits, which, except for five full-length examples probably painted on canvas, were usually three-quarter-view busts (with no hands) painted on panels about eighteen inches high by fourteen inches wide. However, the replicas given to the Indians themselves were probably smaller, to facilitate transportation. For many years the portraits were housed in McKenney's office on the second floor of the old War Department Building a Federal-style structure just west of the White House and only a few blocks from King's home. The collection was immensely popular with foreign visitors and natives alike, as is evident in the reaction of that intrepid British traveler Frances Trollope, who visited the capital in 1830 and found the gallery of "great interest," noting that the "original portraits of all the chiefs . . . are by Mr. King and, it cannot be doubted, are excellent likenesses, as are all the portraits I have seen from the hands of that gentleman." Equally praiseworthy were the words of Jonathan Elliot, a resident of the capital who wrote in his Washington guidebook of 1830: "But for this gallery, our posterity would ask in vain — 'what sort of a looking being was the red man of this country?' In vain would the inquirers be told to read descriptions of him - These could never satisfy. He must be seen to be known. Here then is a gift to posterity."
Unfortunately, Elliot's references to "posterity" turned out to be only partially prophetic. In 1858 the Indian portraits were removed to Renwick's recently completed building for the Smithsonian Institution, where, with an equally remarkable collection of almost 2OO Indian portraits and scenes painted by John Mix Stanley, they were hung in a specially designed Gallery of Art located at the western end of the building, on the second floor. There, in a fire that raged through the gallery on January 24, 1865 several years after King's death, this unique and irreplaceable record of the Indians of North America was almost entirely destroyed. Notwithstanding the conclusion of a report made to the Senate in February 1865 that "it is a consolation that by far the greater part of the valuable contents of the building have escaped without injury," the loss to the impoverished Stanley, who had not been paid for his pictures, was irreparable. King had at least been paid for his work and, more important, would have had the satisfaction of knowing that most of his portraits had been preserved in copies he had made and in lithographic reproductions.
Text Source:
Cosentino, Andrew J. The Paintings of Charles Bird King. Smithsonian Institution Press; Washington D. C. , 1977.
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