American Art Collaborative

“These portraits set forth fairly the modes of dress and ornaments of the young men of the tribe, from the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet. The only dress they wear in warm weather is the breech-cloth, leggings, and moccasins of dressed skins, and garters worn immediately below the knee, ornamented profusely with beads and wampum. These three distinguished and ambitious young men were of the best families in the Osage Nation; and as they explained to me, having formed a peculiar attachment to each other---they desired me to paint them all on one canvas, in which wish I indulged them.” George Catlin painted this work at Fort Gibson (in present-day Oklahoma) in 1834. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 38, 1841; reprint 1973)