American Art Collaborative

George Catlin probably painted this portrait of No English, a member of the Peoria tribe, at Fort Leavenworth (in today’s Kansas) in 1830, the same year he took portraits of the Delaware, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, and other tribes. Catlin’s efforts from 1830 are generally considered his first attempts at Indian portraits in the West. He described No English as “a beau; his face curiously painted, and looking-glass in his hand.” (Catlin, 1848 Catalogue, Catlin’s Indian Gallery, SAAM online exhibition; Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979