Catlin (George, 1796-1872) Tuch-ee, A Celebrated War Chief of the Cherokees, watercolour over graphite, heightened with white, inscribed 'Cherokee Chief' in the lower section over pencil and numbered '284' in the upper right corner, on cream wove paper without a watermark, sheet 245 x 174 mm. (9 5/8 x 6 7/8 in), unframed, [circa 1834]

Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist, circa 1840s or slightly later;
Captain William Henry Shippard; bound into an album with ink attribution to Catlin in Shippard's hand;
Then by descent to the present owners

Literature:
cf. Catlin, George, 'A Descriptive Catalogue of Catlin's Indian Gallery', 1840, no. 284

⁂ An early and previously unrecorded study of the 'Cherokee Chief'. Catlin produced a fully worked oil painting of the sitter in 1834, which is now held in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (see object no. 85.628).

"I travelled and hunted with this man some months, when he guided the Regiment of Dragoons to the Camanchee and Pawnee villages; he is a great warrior and a remarkable hunter" [1]

In 1834 Catlin arrived at Fort Gibson near present-day Tulsa. While here he paints Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Osage tribes; it would have been here that he would have first encountered Tuch-ee. Leaving Fort Gibson Catlin accompanied the army dragoon mission to establish contact with Comanche, Kiowa and Wichita tribes. Catlin and most of the troops contract a fever, with 151 men subsequently dying. Luckily Catlin recovers and rides 540 miles alone on horseback to St. Louis where he meets with his wife Clara, and travels to New Orleans and Pensacola, Florida.

[1] Catlin, George, 'A Descriptive Catalogue of Catlin's Indian Gallery', 1840, p. 29, no. 284