MON-KA-USH-KA SIOUX CHIEF Original Lithograph.McKenney & Hall. Hand-colored.1838

Description

Up for auction at the Grand Antique Mall in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a hand-colored, first edition folio lithograph of
MON-KA-USH-KA, A Sioux Chief
.
Signed lower right with initials
AH
. Original folio from
History of the Indian Tribes of North America
by Thomas L. McKenney
(1785-1859)
and James Hall
(1793-1868).
Their three volumes were  published in 1837, 1842, 1844.  Portrait painted by Charles Bird King. Dated 1838. Published by F. W. Greenough, Philadelphia.  Drawn,  printed and colored at J. T. Bowen,  No 94 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Measures approximately 14.5" x 20".
Well preserved condition. Colors are bright. No marks, writing, tape, rips or repairs. Smudges at bottom right; water (?) stain left side. Jagged right side edge. None affect the image itself.
Palette of red, turquoise, gold, grey, green, brown, black. Compelling, detailed portrait of historical importance.
Portraits in McKenney and Hall's publication are the only surviving record of prominent nineteenth century Native Americans;
original tribe paintings by Charles Bird King (1785-1862) were destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian.
When a delegation of Indians met with President Monroe in 1821, Thomas McKenney commissioned Charles Bird King to paint portraits of important delegates.  Later, in 1830, McKenney was given permission to hire Henry Inman to copy the so-called "Indian Gallery" of portraits; this was expensive and time consuming --  but the only way to create lithographs for his book-in-progress,
History of the Indian Tribes of North America
. Because of McKenney, the tribal portraits live on today.
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