De Tonty Suing for Peace in the Iroquois Village. January 2, 1680

George Catlin created the oil painting De Tonty Suing for Peace in the Iroquois Village in 1848. The work was originally owned by the artist before passing by descent to his daughters, Clara Gregory Catlin, Louise Catlin Kinney, and Elizabeth Wing Catlin. In 1912, the American Museum of Natural History purchased the piece from Elizabeth Wing Catlin.

The museum later sold the painting in 1959 through Kennedy Galleries in New York to Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia. Mellon subsequently gifted the work to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1965, where it remains part of the collection. Its accession number is not specified in the available sources.

The painting was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 1965, ensuring its preservation and public access. Its acquisition by a major U.S. museum helped cement Catlin's reputation as a chronicler of North American Indigenous subjects, influencing later scholars and artists interested in early American frontier narratives. The work is frequently cited in studies of 19th‑century historical painting and the evolving portrayal of Native peoples in Western art.

George Catlin’s oil painting, titled De Tonty Suing for Peace in the Iroquois Village, was completed in 1848. Executed on card affixed to paperboard, the work measures a modest size and portrays a winter tableau in which a European figure kneels before a group of Iroquois men within a village setting.

The scene references a diplomatic encounter dated January 2, 1680, when a French envoy, identified as De Tonty, sought to negotiate peace with the Iroquois. The composition emphasizes the act of supplication, highlighting the power dynamics and the ritualized nature of cross‑cultural diplomacy in the colonial era.

Created in the mid‑nineteenth century, the painting emerges at a time when American interest in the “vanishing Indian” was intensifying. Catlin’s legal background and his extensive travels among indigenous groups informed his attempt to present a balanced visual record of Native‑European encounters.