Karl Bodmer - Chef Mandan

Karl Bodmer "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, in English: Four Bears) was the only Mandan chief I know of. Born in 1795, he lived during the first half of the 19th century in the upper Missouri River near Bismarck, in present-day North Dakota. He was famous among his people as a courageous warrior, for 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, and three years later, in 1836, the first chief. He was friends with the painters Karl Bodmer and George Catlin, who both painted him. In 1832, Karl Bodmer painted two pictures of Mato-Tope. In them, the chief is seen in his finest clothes and the artistically painted face. The eagle feather headdress is also impressive. With the artistic spear that Mato-Tope holds in his hand, he killed the Arikaras who had killed his brother. Under the tip, the scalps of the Arikaras adorn the spear. The wooden knife symbolizes a hand-to-hand fight in which he seized a knife from the hands of 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 an entire morning to prepare to paint. Catlin remembered this."

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