Artwork
Bear Dance - K'nisteneux
Bear Dance - K'nisteneux is an oil painting by the American Folk Art artist George Catlin. It dates from 1861 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Created in 1861, Bear Dance – K’nisteneux is an oil painting on card that has been mounted on paperboard.
About this work
Technique & Style
Catlin’s handling combines fluid brushwork with careful delineation of costume and gesture, typical of his ethnographic genre scenes.
Executed in oil on card mounted on paperboard, the work measures 46.5 × 61.2 cm. Catlin’s handling combines fluid brushwork with careful delineation of costume and gesture, typical of his ethnographic genre scenes. The composition stages a circular Bear Dance in an open landscape, where dancers in feathered regalia form a ring around a central post, their movements rendered with rhythmic, almost decorative repetition. Stylistically, the palette is earthy and restrained, ochres, umbers, and muted greens, contrasting with the vivid reds and blues of the regalia to focus attention on the figures’ formal arrangement rather than naturalistic detail.
History & Provenance
George Catlin executed Bear Dance - K'nisteneux in 1861 as an oil painting on card mounted to paperboard. Following the artist's death in 1872, the work passed by descent to his three daughters: Clara Gregory Catlin, Louise Catlin Kinney, and Elizabeth Wing Catlin. In 1912, the American Museum of Natural History purchased the piece directly from Elizabeth Wing Catlin.
The museum subsequently sold the painting in 1959 through Kennedy Galleries in New York to Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia. Mellon retained the work until 1965, at which point he donated it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it remains in the collection.
Bear Dance - K'nisteneux is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it is accessioned under the inventory number 1965.12.1. The work entered the museum in 1965 as a gift from Mr. Paul Mellon, following its acquisition in 1959 from Kennedy Galleries, New York, which had purchased it from Elizabeth Wing Catlin in 1912. Its provenance traces back to George Catlin, who created the painting in 1861, and subsequently passed through his daughters before its sale to the museum.
Overview
Created in 1861, Bear Dance – K’nisteneux is an oil painting on card that has been mounted on paperboard. The work depicts a circle of Native American men performing the Bear Dance, a ritual that involves linked arms, feathered headdresses and the sound of bells as the participants move slowly around one another.
Subject & Meaning
The composition captures a moment of communal ceremony among Plains tribes, emphasizing the rhythm and unity of the dance. By focusing on the dancers’ attire and the audible elements of the ritual, the image conveys both the visual splendor and the auditory atmosphere of the cultural practice.
Context
Created during a period of rapid westward expansion, the piece reflects Catlin’s ambition to document Indigenous customs for audiences in the eastern United States. His travels in the 1830s and 1840s brought him into close contact with the very communities he portrayed, and the Bear Dance scene serves as a visual testimony to those encounters amid a changing frontier.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
George Catlin ( KAT-lin; July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the American frontier.
Bulls Fighting
Expedition Encamped on a Texas Prairie. April 1686
An Alligator's Nest
Mrs. George Catlin (Clara Bartlet Gregory)
Chief of the Taensa Indians Receiving La Salle. March 20, 1682
A Small Village - Payaguas Indians
Omaha Chief, His Wife, and a Warrior
Father Hennepin Leaving the Mississippi to Join La Salle. May 8, 1680
