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Spotted Bull - Mandan

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Image Not Available for Spotted Bull - Mandan
Spotted Bull - Mandan
Image Not Available for Spotted Bull - Mandan

Spotted Bull - Mandan

Artist (1868 - 1952)
Date1908
MediumPhotogravure
Dimensionsmat: 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
mat window: 16 1/2 × 10 3/8 in. (41.9 × 26.4 cm)
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2005.28.149
Accession number 2005.28.149
DescriptionPlate 149
On View
Not on view
Provenance(William Reese Company, New Haven, CT); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2005
Label TextBetween 1907 and 1930, Edward S. Curtis photographed hundreds of Native Americans from tribes across the United States. Curtis’s stated goal was documentary: “to catalogue how Indians lived prior to contact with the white man,” yet he found his subjects living primarily on reservations. His romantic, pictorial style and sepia-toned printing conveys nostalgia for the past, which appealed to audiences of the time. Despite the staged nature of some of his photographs, Curtis’s work remains an important record of individuals such as Spotted Bull, a member of the Mandan tribe.