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Indian Woman Dressing a Deer Skin

Painting of a Native American woman using a metal rod to scrape an animal skin stretched on a wooden frame with a bowl beneath. She looks away from the skin and to her left is a teepee./tiles/collection/3/3731.xml
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Painting of a Native American woman using a metal rod to scrape an animal skin stretched on a wooden frame with a bowl beneath. She looks away from the skin and to her left is a teepee.
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Date

1867-1869

Artist

Seth Eastman

Dimensions

38 3/4 × 28 1/2 in. (98.4 × 72.4 cm) Framed: 49 5/8 × 39 5/8 × 4 1/2 in. (126 × 100.6 × 11.4 cm)

Accession Number

2004.040.007

Credit Line

Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Object Details

By the time Seth Eastman completed this painting, skin dressing was a dying art. Traditionally done by woman, preparing skins for use in clothing and shelters by hand was a multi-step, labor intensive process. This work is part of a nine-painting commission for the House Committee on Indian Affairs. These genre scenes include several of traditional domestic labor, set in sweeping descriptive landscapes, as seen in this work.

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Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov