Karl Bodmer - Mandan Chef

Karl Bodmer "Mandan Chief. Chief Mandan"

Original lithograph 14.37 x 10.83 inches; 36,5 cm x 27,5 cm by J. Honegger after Bodmer  Plate 34 from Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen des Menschen by H. R. Schinz. 

"Mato-Tope (also Ma-to-Toh-pe, English: Four Bears) was a - the only - Mandan chief I know of. Born in 1795, he lived in the first half of the 19th century on the upper Missouri near Bismarck in what is now the US state of North Dakota. He was famous among his people as a brave warrior because he killed a Cheyenne chief in a wrestling match. When he was painted by Catlin and Bodmer, he was the second chief of his tribe - three years later - in 1836 - the first chief. He was friends with the painters Karl Bodmer and George Catlin, who both painted the chief. In 1832, Karl Bodmer painted two pictures of Mato-Tope. It shows the Chief in his best clothes and artistic face paint. The headdress made of eagle feathers is also impressive. With the artistic lance that Mato-Tope holds in his hand, he killed the Arikara members who killed his brother. Below the tip, the scalps of the Arikara adorn the lance. The wooden knife symbolizes a man-to-man fight in which he took a knife from a Cheyenne. Mato-Tope was a frequent guest of the painters, often bringing his wife and a boy named Mato-Berocka (= Male Bear). Mato-Tope sometimes needed a whole morning to get ready for a painting. Catlin remembered this. 

Karl Bodmer (1809–1893) was a Swiss-French printmaker, etcher, lithographer, zinc engraver, draughtsman, painter, illustrator, and hunter.