Bear dance - K'nisteneux

Catlin, George (1796-1872)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1861

Height:

46.5 cm  (18 5/16 in.)

Width:

61.2 cm  (24 1/8 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on card mounted on paperboard

Description

Fourteen men dancing (with no visible musical accompaniment). --- From the artist's own catalog: The “Bear Society,” formed of young men who assemble in the village and dance and sing to the “Bear Spirit,” for the safety and success of the hunters who start in pursuit of a lurking Grizzly Bear. When the hunters return successful, the society demand of the hunter a grand feast, and the feast being prepared, this grotesque dance is given.

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

RIdIM/RCMI inventory of music iconography, no. 1: National Gallery of Art, Washington , compiled by Terence Ford, Andrew Green and Emilio Ros-Fábregas (New York : Research Center for Musical Iconography, 1986). OCLC 21021340. RILM 1986-219.

RIdIM record id

1816