Ledger Drawing #3

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Ledger Drawing #3

Artist Crow Nation

Place of OriginCrow, Northern Plains

Datec. 1890

Dimensions8 × 9 7/8 in. (20.3 × 25.1 cm)

MediumWatercolor, graphite and colored pencil on paper

ClassificationDrawings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from The Joseph and Kathleen Magliochetti Fund

Object number

2017.35

Not on View

DescriptionThe figure, a Crow woman, is clearly articulate with both she and her horse swathed in material. The entire image is composited from blue, red, black, and white. The woman wears a red dress dotted with white marks meant to denote elk teeth. Often by the late 19th-century carved bone was substituted instead due to costs and difficulty to acquire the teeth—elk only have two upper canines which may be used in the dress, necessitating the slaying of dozens of elk to produce one dress. The v-shaped neck overlay was also fashionable for women during the time. She appears to bear a shield, shown in the tasseled disk placed in front of her body, and a spear dripping with feathers. The image, however, might have been trimmed down at one point, as the other poles seem to be missing their top portion The horse is richly arrayed in traditional livery to match its rider. It is decorated with blue pigment for large swathes of its hide and dotted across with red stipulation. It appears to bear a bell about its neck, most likely in response to the widespread act of horse-stealing by rival nations, such as the Cheyenne.

Label TextLedger drawings emerged at a pivotal moment in Native American history as land disputes between native nations and white settlers intensified and forced removal to reservations became widespread. Acquired either through trade or battle, ledger or record books provided a new pictorial format for the Plains Indians. Originally, the drawings were reserved specifically for the exploits of warriors, but the form soon encapsulated a variety of imagery, including daily life. Crow ledger drawings are far less common than those produced by the Cheyenne during this same period. These singular drawings are remarkable and distinctive in the level of detail that they capture—detail that offers great insight into late 19th-century Crow life, customs, and ceremonial presentation. The figure in the drawing on the right is a Crow woman, mounted on a horse in elaborate regalia, carrying weapons, and wearing a traditional dress decorated with elk teeth, a status symbol. The accompanying drawing shows a male Crow warrior carrying an eagle-feather fan in his left hand and a bunch of rushes in his right. See Marie Watt’s Ledger: Predator/Prey in this gallery for a contemporary allusion to the genre.Published ReferencesDonald Ellis Gallery, Keeping Time: Plains Indian Ledger Drawings, 1865-1900, Toronto, Donald Ellis Gallery, 2014, 76-83.Exhibition HistoryThe Armory Show, New York, "Booth #238, Pier 92: Modern," March 3-6, 2016.