Tobacconist Figure: Indian

Dateca. 1880

MediumPainted pine

DimensionsOverall: 73 x 24 x 25 1/2in. (185.4 x 61 x 64.8cm); Figure alone: 58 1/2 x 24 x 19 1/2in. (148.6 x 61 x 49.5cm); and Base alone: 14 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 25 1/2in. (36.8 x 52.1 x 64.8cm)

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1931.705.2

DescriptionA full-length, freestanding, painted woodcarving of a female figure wearing Native American attire with an integral base, now enclosed by a wooden framework. She is posed in a striding posture, her proper left arm hanging by her side, that hand grasping a bunch of tobacco leaves. Her proper right arm is raised to shoulder height. (The proper right forearm, now raised in the posture of a salute, is a replacement, and the configuration of the original is unknown). She wears a headdress of feathers (now trimmed across the top), a strand of large beads, long, cross-hatched earrings that flare outward at the base and, diagonally across her body, a fringed sash. Her knee-length skirt is fringed at the bottom in gold and overlaid at the waist with a "skirt" of feathers. On the fronts of her legs, below the knees, she sports decorative garters, and she wears moccasins with high, puckered vamps. She has had many layers of paint; the present surface is peeling extensively. Artist unidentified.
Label TextProjecting parts, such as this woman's raised arm, were carved separately and attached by screws. They remained vulnerable, however, and this arm has been replaced at least twice. How the original limb was configured and what, if anything, the hand may have held are unknown; cigars were most commonly grasped by figures of this type and date. The tips of the woman's headdress were trimmed sometime prior to acquisition, probably to accommodate a low ceiling. The figure itself is a stock type likely crafted on speculation, in contrast with more individualistic examples that were made to order.
Feathers surround the figure's waist, perpetuating the ancient misconception that Indians actually wore such attire. (One of the earliest known depictions of Native Americans, a German woodcut of ca. 1505, shows its subjects wearing feather skirts). The idea may have begun with early Europeans' misunderstanding of verbal descriptions of Native Americans as "people who wore no clothes and decorated themselves with feathers." Without accurate imagery to counter the error of their conclusions (and perhaps finding the concept of everyday nudity implausble), early Europeans mentally "invented" the feather skirt, and the idea was repeated endlessly afterwards. Other incredible, widespread notions of Native dress include the variant of tobacco-leaf skirts.

ProvenanceFound in Bridgeport, Conn., by Edith G. Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY; in 1931, purchased from Halpert by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was CWF's donor.

Exhibition(s)

Sidewalks to Rooftops: Outdoor Folk Art