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Course: Art of the Americas to World War I > Unit 7
Lesson 5: Realism in the United States- Becoming a city: daily life in 1820, Brooklyn
- John Wesley Jarvis, Black Hawk and His Son Whirling Thunder
- Mount, Bargaining for a Horse
- John James Audubon, The Wild Turkey
- Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits
- Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico
- Before the Civil War, the Mexican-American War as prelude
- Face to face with the voters: Bingham's Country Politician
- Frederic Church, The Natural Bridge, Virginia
- Blythe, Justice
- Martyr or murderer? Hovenden's The Last Moments of John Brown
- The Civil War: putting Liberty front and center
- Johnson, A Ride for Liberty -- The Fugitive Slaves
- Mending America, women and the Civil War
- Cotton, oil, and the economics of history
- Eakins, The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull)
- Heroes of modern surgery: Eakins' Dr. Gross and Dr. Agnew
- Eakins, The Gross Clinic
- The U.S. Civil War, sharpshooters, and Winslow Homer
- Winslow Homer, Army Teamsters
- Winslow Homer, Taking Sunflower to Teacher
- Homer, The Life Line
- Homer, The Fog Warning (Halibut Fishing)
- Homer, Northeaster
- Winslow Homer, Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba
- Brown, View of the Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
- The closing of the frontier and The Fall of the Cowboy
- The Radical Floriography of Sarah Mapps Douglass
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John Wesley Jarvis, Black Hawk and His Son Whirling Thunder
John Wesley Jarvis paints Black Hawk and his son, Whirling Thunder, showcasing the complex relationship between Native Americans and U.S. settlers. The artwork captures the dignity of the subjects, while hinting at the tensions of the era. Created by Smarthistory.
Want to join the conversation?
- Another wonderful video - thanks! Question: on the topic of "sitting" for the artist. Do we know, for this particular painting, or for portraits in general from this or earlier time periods, that the subject "sat", literally, for the entire time the artist put brush to canvas? Given the detail and emotional depth of the finished portrait, I can only imagine that it would have taken many, many hours, spread over many weeks, if not longer. To me, this seems to have the potential to be an entire sub-category of art history, but if you could provide some insight into how this was accomplished for this painting, that would be great.(1 vote)
- The answer is that we don't know. However, it does seem very likely, as you suggest, that these men did sit for the artist. It is however possible that the artist made sketches when they sat and worked up the painting at a later date.(2 votes)
Video transcript
(pleasant piano music) - [Narrator #1] We're
in the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looking at this magnificent
double portrait. - [Narrator #2] This is a portrait of Black Hawk and his son Whirling Thunder by John Wesley Jarvis. It's painted in 1833. This is an incredibly complex
moment in American history and a complex moment in the
lives of these two individuals. - [Narrator #1] Probably
painted in New York where Jarvis was the leading
portrait painter of his time. Black Hawk and his son were there only for a brief period of
time, but importantly, they were not there of
their own free will. - [Narrator #2] Black Hawk is standing to the right in front dressed in a fitted black military coat. He's got a white shirt and a black tie. In his ear, you can see some beaded adornments, and his expression is fairly serious. He's got a furrowed brow. His mouth is slightly
downturned, and he appears to be a little bit introspective
or perhaps even resigned. And then behind him, his
son, Whirling Thunder, his mouth is upturned. His eyes are a little more open. He appears more inquisitive. He has the beaded adornments
and some vermilion pigment on his ears and in his scalp block. He has one bare shoulder
and then has a white cloak or cloth around his other shoulder with a red cloak overlaying that. - [Narrator #1] There's a strong light from the front, highlighting
the facial features against a very dark background. - [Narrator #2] And really all the detail of the painting is
concentrated on the two faces. Black Hawk was a leader of the Sauk people in present-day Illinois and he first was engaged
in the war of 1812. He actually fought for the
British against the Americans believing that the British
were more likely to support the sovereignty
of the South people. And then later in 1832, he led a band that was
resisting a takeover of their homes, lands, and food supplies. When his forces were defeated,
Black Hawk was touted as both a fallen hero, but
also as a backward quote, savage. Black Hawk, his son, and several of his men were prisoners of
war following this conflict. And at that time, president
Andrew Jackson brought them on a tour of Eastern cities in the United States through
the summer and fall of 1833. - [Narrator #1] Now, when we say tour we don't mean this was for
the benefit of these two men. It was meant to do several things. It was meant to tout the
US military's success that these were now prisoners. But at the same time,
it was meant to impress upon these men the power of White America. - [Narrator #2] Jackson was hoping that by bringing these incarcerated individuals to several cities in the
eastern United States that they would be impressed
by the power and numbers of the United States and
thus deter future conflict. But the public became so infatuated with Black Hawk and with this group of individuals touring that
they really became celebrities and Jackson really wasn't
able to control the narrative. - [Narrator #1] The fact that Jarvis, the most prominent
portraitist in New York City, chose to paint their faces
as a perfect testament to their celebrity and
their historical importance at this moment. - [Narrator #2] As they
traveled around the east, several artists painted their portraits. - [Narrator #1] Generally, when
we think about portraiture, we think about people sitting
of their own volition. And we don't know that's the case here. - [Narrator #2] There's a lot we probably can't know about the exact circumstances of how this
portrait came to be painted. But what we do know is that
Black Hawk and his son were in New York on this force
tour, but they were able to still have some of their own agency in the way that they chose
to represent themselves. - [Narrator #1] We're confronted with some really interesting
compositional choices. The elder figure is on the right and the younger on the left,
and the elder figure wears at least some Euro-American fashion where the younger figure does not. We do know that Black
Hawk wore this jacket on numerous occasions, and it
does speak to a White audience of military dignity and
somebody to be reckoned with. - [ Narrator #2] Black
Hawk did own this jacket. He's shown in this jacket
in numerous engravings and portraits, and he continued
to wear a tailored jacket at diplomatic and ceremonial occasions for the rest of his life. So for a White audience
in the 19th century, this painting was likely
viewed as a loss of culture. As the Sauk culture becoming assimilated into European American culture. It's likely that Black Hawk and his son saw this as their
deliberate choice to adapt and bring these symbols of power into their culture. - [Narrator #1] And so it's important that we're viewing this
painting here in Oklahoma. - [Narrator #2] Thomas Gilcrease, the founder of Gilcrease Museum, was himself a citizen
of the Muscogee Nation and a big part of his motivation
was to create a center of indigenous history in Oklahoma where there are 39
federally recognized tribes. And so today, the Sac and Fox Nation is located here in
Oklahoma, not too far away from where one can come
and see this portrait of the historic Sauk leader Black Hawk. (pleasant piano music)