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Exhibition History"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.
"Treasures from the Thaw Collection," Wheelwright Museum of American Indian Art. Santa Fe, NM, May 1, 2000 - December 31, 2000.
"Floral Journey: Native North American Flower Beadwork," Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles, CA, February 18, 2014 - May 11, 2015.
ProvenancePaul Coze (1903-1974), a French artist who collected in Canada, c.1928-1938, and settled in Arizona in 1939; Walter M. Banko, Montreal, Quebec
BibliographyPalais du Trocadero. Peaux-rouges d'hier et d'aujourdh'hui: exposition de la mission Paul Coze. Paris: Palais di Trocadero, 1931, p. 19.
Perriot, Francoise, and Slim Batteux, trans. Arts des Indiens d'Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d'Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris: Somogy editions d'Art, 1999, p. 24, fig. 13.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.171.
Dubin, Lois S. Floral Journey: Native North American Beadwork. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2014, fig. 154, p. 175.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 152.
Culture
Metis-Lakota (Teton Sioux)
Vest
Datec. 1880
DimensionsOverall: 21 × 18 in. (53.3 × 45.7 cm)
Object numberT0073
Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextThe Metis families living among the Lakota in the last decade of the 19th century developed a distinct art style. It is comprised of small curvilinear and multi-colored designs in fine beadwork, abstract in form but clearly derived from plant forms, combined with figures of stars, birds and horses and placed in bilaterally symmetrical compositions against a background of tanned leather. (c.f. Penney 1992, fig.104; Pohrt 1975, fig. 9 & 25; Maurer 1977, fig.153; Herbst and Kopp 1993, fig.76; Myers 1993, figs. 1 & 6; Conn 1975 p. 75) Coming from southern Manitoba, Minnesota, and the French communities near St. Louis, their ancestors had been employed in the fur trade and the U.S. army in the Dakotas. In the 1840s the Metis had settled at Fort Pierre and other trading posts on the upper Missouri, where they had produced elaborately quillworked skin garments for white travellers. After the buffalo were gone many of these people had joined their Sioux Indian relatives on the reservations. The whimsical style of fine beadwork that they developed in the 1880s is intermediate between their former delicate floral quillwork and the geometric style that was developing among the western Sioux. Most typical in this Metis-Lakota beadwork is the flower-like motif that consists of several V-shapes of different colors, stacked on top of each other. All designs have a thin white border. Metis-Lakota beadwork is almost exclusively found on garments and pouches of a type that the Metis had been producing for generations. In comparison with other examples, the decoration of this vest is rather restrained; the turtle figures on the front are unusual. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)Exhibition History"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.
"Treasures from the Thaw Collection," Wheelwright Museum of American Indian Art. Santa Fe, NM, May 1, 2000 - December 31, 2000.
"Floral Journey: Native North American Flower Beadwork," Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles, CA, February 18, 2014 - May 11, 2015.
ProvenancePaul Coze (1903-1974), a French artist who collected in Canada, c.1928-1938, and settled in Arizona in 1939; Walter M. Banko, Montreal, Quebec
BibliographyPalais du Trocadero. Peaux-rouges d'hier et d'aujourdh'hui: exposition de la mission Paul Coze. Paris: Palais di Trocadero, 1931, p. 19.
Perriot, Francoise, and Slim Batteux, trans. Arts des Indiens d'Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d'Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris: Somogy editions d'Art, 1999, p. 24, fig. 13.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.171.
Dubin, Lois S. Floral Journey: Native North American Beadwork. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2014, fig. 154, p. 175.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 152.
On View
On view
