The Dying Tecumseh
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Object Details
- Artist
- Ferdinand Pettrich, born Dresden, Germany 1798-died Rome, Italy 1872
- Sitter
- Tecumseh
- Gallery Label
- Tecumseh (Shawnee, 1768--1813) was a vital figure in the Native American resistance to U.S. expansionism after the Revolution. A warrior chief from the Ohio Valley, he worked to build a coalition of Indigenous nations that would block white settlers from encroaching further west. In the War of 1812 (1812--15), Tecumseh strategically allied his forces with the British but was killed by U.S. troops in the Battle of the Thames. The future president William Henry Harrison, who led that pivotal battle, recognized the formidable challenge Tecumseh's coalition would have posed to the United States, calling him, "one of those uncommon geniuses, which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions."
- This sculpture emulates the ancient Roman sculpture the Dying Gaul, which similarly portrays a military adversary as heroic, yet exotic and powerless. A fictive portrait, it mythologizes Tecumseh as a timeless "noble savage," dangerously and erroneously suggesting that his death and the rapacious expansion of the United States were inevitable. The work stood in the U.S. Capitol from 1864 to 1878, a time when Congressional legislation profoundly impacted Indigenous sovereignties.
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Capitol
- modeled ca. 1837-1846, carved 1856
- Object number
- 1916.8.1
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Sculpture
- Medium
- marble with painted copper alloy tomahawk
- Dimensions
- 36 5/8 x 77 5/8 x 53 3/4 in. (93.1 x 197.2 x 136.6 cm.)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- On View
- Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, on view
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Topic
- Indian
- Figure male\full length
- State of being\death
- Portrait male
- Record ID
- saam_1916.8.1
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7d0705dcb-a8b3-41ef-a91b-b6bd3e11fd8c
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
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