American Art Collaborative

George Catlin described Grizzly Bear as a dignified chief of the Menominee tribe who “commanded great respect for his eloquence, and . . . deportment.” He painted the chief with “a handsome pipe in his hand, and wampum on his neck,” probably in Washington, D.C., in 1831, when Grizzly Bear and fourteen members of his tribe visited the capital to negotiate the sale of a portion of their tribal lands. This portrait is painted with a flourish and fullness of expression that distinguishes it among the Menominee group. (Truettner, The Natural Man Observed , 1979