AMERICAN INDIAN WORKSHOP NUMBER 59 NEWSLETTER

NATIVE ARTS

Anatomy of a Fake

Around 1989 a Seattle dealer com- missioned a well-known replicator of Indian artifacts to paint an imitation war-exploit robe. Some months later the dealer sold the painted robe to a New York collector for $65,000.00. The painting quickly came to the attention of leading scholars and they mistook it for a genuine and important artifact. I was then researching hide paintings executed in the style of the robe, and so traveled to New York to study it. The robe became the seventh work examined in my essay “Seven War- Exploit Paintings: A Search for their Origins,“ published in Studies in Amer- ican Indian Art: A Memorial Tribute to Norman Feder (Brownstone 2001), where it was identified as the “Fisher robe,” after the name of the owner at The fake “Fisher robe”: The lines leading from figures an the fake robe lead to their authen- the time of study. Soon after publication tic counterparts, all identified and discussed in Brownstone (2001). All elements of the I received a call from a well-known illustration are drawn true to scale. Drawing by the author. New York dealer who explained that he had recently bought the robe from its first owner and, after reading my commissioned the replication.1 While ings held by the Bernisches Histo- essay, he wanted me to write an arti- the former owners have been com- risches Museum. The overall compo- cle on his new acquisition. Not a month pensated, there still remains a need to sition of the replica, with the upper later the replicator also read my essay correct the false information on the register devoted to the narration of and was much surprised to find his robe which has now become a part of exploits and the lower to a tally, ap- spurious painting prominently illustrat- the literature. pears to be modeled after the Berne ed and discussed. He immediately let The replicator and I must have been robe. The tally is comprised of rows of a scholar/friend know that his painting looking closely at some of the same pin-and-cup motifs which partially had been misrepresented in my arti- paintings and at the same time, but for replicate the “honor chart“ on the cle. His friend passed along the news different reasons. I believe his false Hidatsa robe in the Berlin museum. to the unfortunate new owner of the painting is based on four or five Some say, perhaps with tongue in robe. Additional calls were made to authentic paintings, all discussed in cheek, that this motif represents sexu- ameliorate what had become an awk- my paper. Three are painted robes al “conquests,“ suggesting an ele- ward, not to mention costly, situation held by the Ethnologisches Museum ment of humor in the ersatz robe. The among friends and acquaintances. A Berlin, National Museum of Denmark, accompanying illustration shows the lawyer/ collector advised that the and National Museum of the American striking resemblance between figures replicator should write a letter to the Indian. A shirt from the latter institution on the replica and their counterparts initial collector and admit to painting was possibly involved. He also uti- on the authentic paintings. At the the robe. Once the collector received lized one or two Rudolph Kurz draw- same time changes in details on fig- the letter she had “guilty knowledge“ ures in the replica, such as weapons of the robe, allowing the second col- 1 To substantiate the claim that the paint- and hair styles, mask their true identi- lector to demand a refund. She paid ing was fraudulent, the first owner had ties. (In my illustration I erased weap- and then, retracing the “chain of cus- the pigments chemically analyzed. The ons held by authentic figures above tody,“ managed to get her money two colors employed, black and orange/ the replica for purposes of compari- back from the dealer who initially vermilion, proved to be acrylic paint. son.) In the same vein, spatial rela-

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES 16:2 2002 55 tions between figures were altered in cept such images emanating from their this experience it is the reminder, that their transposition from original to own ranks (Brownstone 1998). The undocumented works of Plains picto- replica. The exception is the scene subjects of Catlin‘s oil portraits repre- graphic painting (and Native Ameri- featuring the high-stepping man with sent almost every tribe on the plains. can works of art in general) should not a gun facing another similarly armed Shirts, robes, and tipis bearing picto- be accepted as evidence as long as warrior which almost exactly repli- graphic war narratives are displayed our understanding of tribal styles is cates its counterpart on Kurz‘s origi- with great frequency in these works. still rudimentary. Since it will not al- nal drawing. Before it was revealed as The pictographs were largely decora- ways be as easy as in this case to a fake, Bill Holm noted this extraordi- tive filler, and were expeditiously ren- identify a falsification on the basis of nary likeness (Holm, personal com- dered in a consistent style entirely of the faker’s confession, the unlawful munication to Cowdrey, February Catlin‘s making (Holm 1992:48). In introduction of very deceptive “cre- 1996). I postulated that Kurz must have two notable instances he modified this ative reproductions” over the past partially used the robe in question as style by the addition of frog-like fig- several decades makes it necessary his model for his drawings (Brown- ures with triangular torsos and splayed to require positive documentary or stone to Holm, personal communica- legs and feet. One is a robe which physical evidence for at least the age tion, July 1996), but the reverse now once existed in the Provincial Muse- of such works in order to use them as appears to be true. This deception um of Ontario (cat.no. 27,091) said to examples of historical styles. Iargely owes its success to the copy- have been collected by John S. Bax- Arni Brownstone ing and altering of elements from ter, an assistant of Catlin (Annual diverse but stylistically equivalent Archaeological Report of Ontario Arni Bronwstone is Assistant Curator at the originals. Adding to this is the fact that 1905:27–31). John Ewers made the Royal Ontario Museum (100 Queen's Park, the painting is executed on an old following comment on this robe: “I Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 2C6; unpainted buffalo robe, said to have would have more confidence in the [email protected]) and author of War Paint. Blackfoot and Sarcee Painted Buffalo been acquired on an Indian reserva- Baxter robe as adding credence to Robes in the Royal Ontario Museum (1993). tion before becoming part of the repli- the Indianess of the style of figure[s] cator‘s stock. appearing on the shirts collected by In recent years it has been almost Catlin if we did not know that Baxter REFERENCES CITED impossible to acquire true brain- had been associated with Catlin. tanned bison hides in replica of old Might it not add even more fuel to the Brownstone, Arni robes which were scraped down quite fire that Catlin himself was responsi- 1998 Book Review of Colin F. Taylor: thin to lessen the weight and bulk of ble for this style of Indian pictogra- Catlin‘s O-Kee-Pa: Mandan Culture the hide (MilIer 1992:63, 65). This is phy?“ (Ewers, personal communica- and Ceremanial, The George Catlin Manuscript in the British Museum. one factor which explains why recent tion to Brownstone, 24 August 1991). European Review of Native American fake pictographic robes are so rare. Ewers‘s hugely influential 1957 arti- Studies 12(1):55–56. Such may not have been the case in cle “Early White Influence on Plains 2001 Seven War-Exploit Paintings: A earlier times. Around 1853 when the Indian Painting“ postulated that Karl Search for Their Origins. In: C. F. poverty stricken German artist Bal- Bodmer and George Catlin‘s influence Feest (ed.), Studies in American Indi- duin Möllhausen was in America he was responsible for the Mandan chief an Art: A Memorial Tribute to Norman wrote in his diary that he had made Four Bear‘s style of depiction, which Feder (ERNAS Monographs 2, Alten- friends with the Indians and made departed strikingly from other known stadt: European Review of Native paintings in their manner on bison contemporary Plains Indian paintings, American Studies), 69–85. Ewers, John C. robes which he profitably sold to the seemingly in the direction of Euro- 1957 Early White Influence Upon 2 fur trade (Graf 1991:88, note 310). pean pictorialism (Ewers 1957). An Plains Indian Painting: George Catlin None of Möllhausen‘s forgeries have important piece of evidence adduced and Carl Bodmer Among the Mandan, been identified in extant collections. I by Ewers in support of his thesis was 1832–1834. Smithsonian Miscellane- did find a pen and ink drawing of a a pictographic shirt in the U.S. Nation- ous Collections 134(7). war-exploit robe in the Möllhausen al Museum of Natural History collect- Graf, Andreas folio in the Smithsonian Institution ar- ed by Catlin and thought to have be- 1991 Der Tod der Wolfe: Das abenteu- chives, but it is much abbreviated, longed to Four Bears (cat.no. erliche und das bürgerliche Leben poorly observed and only remotely 386,505). However, in 1992 Holm dem- des Romanschriftstellers und Ameri- kareisenden Balduin Möllhausen resembles an authentic robe of the onstrated that Catlin had painted the (1825–1904). Berlin: Duncker & Hum- period. shirt, and that Ewers erred in attribut- blot. George Catlin created a varied and ing to Catlin the stylistic development Holm, Bill extensive array of bogus pictographic of Four Bears (Holm 1992). Although 1992 Four Bears‘ Shirt: Some Prob- works. Most unusual were the “fac- the evidence was spurious, the article lems with the Smithsonian Catlin Col- similes“ of painted robes found in his by Ewers opened up an extremely lection. In: G. P. Horse Capture and S. “Souvenir Unique“ portfolio of litho- important area of study and had a sig- G. Tyler (eds.), Artifacts/Artifakes: The graphs held by the New York Public nificant influence on at least one gen- Proceedings of the 1984 Plains Indian Seminar (Cody, WY: Buffalo Bill His- Library. These are noted for their phal- eration of researchers. torical Center), 43–59. lic and anal imagery. Seemingly, Although the fake robe painting has Miller, Mark Catlin invented his risqué pictograph- flawed my contribution to the Feder 1992 Artifake Detection. In: G. P. ic narratives disguised as Indian war- festschrift, its conclusions regarding Horse Capture and S. G. Tyler (eds.), exploit robes to entertain members of the origins of six of the seven paint- Artifacts/Artifakes: The Proceedings the Anglo society who could not ac- ings remain relatively unscathed, be- of the 1984 Plains Indian Seminar cause the falsification was based on a (Cody, WY: Buffalo Bill Historical Center), 61–69. 2 I am grateful to Kilian Klann for offering group of stylistically related works. If and translating this information. something good has resulted from

56 EUROPEAN REVIEW OF