Handsome Morning -- A Dakota
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Object Label
Harry C. Edwards’s striking studio portrait of Handsome Morning—a woman the artist identifies as Dakota Sioux—reflects a turn-of-the-century fascination with romanticized subjects in costume. Handsome Morning’s regalia consists of a fringed dress with beaded yoke, a tubular bone-bead necklace, beaded moccasins, and a buffalo-hide robe. It is likely that she was styled and posed according to conventional portrayals of Native American people made popular by the theatricalized portraits of photographer Edward S. Curtis, which included the mixing of tribal dress and ornamentation, and the use of stoic expressions and gestures.
Akin to the 1880 U.S. government–commissioned Crow Peace Delegation portraits, which were later appropriated and annotated by contemporary artist Wendy Red Star (on view nearby), Edwards’s use of his sitter’s name in the title signaled authenticity to viewers. Artists at the time were aware of the U.S. government’s long-standing exploitation of, and open assault on, the lives and lands of Native people. Edwards was likely motivated by an interest in his subject as a curiosity rather than by an active regard for her community.
Caption
Harry C. Edwards American, 1868–1922. Handsome Morning -- A Dakota, 1921. Oil on canvas, frame: 81 9/16 x 45 9/16 x 4 1/8 in. (207.2 x 115.7 x 10.5 cm) 72 1/16 x 36 1/16 in. (183 x 91.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Estate of Grace C. Edwards, 26.149. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 26.149_PS20.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Handsome Morning -- A Dakota
Date
1921
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
frame: 81 9/16 x 45 9/16 x 4 1/8 in. (207.2 x 115.7 x 10.5 cm) 72 1/16 x 36 1/16 in. (183 x 91.6 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower left: "c / 1921 / BY / H.C.EDWARDS"
Credit Line
Gift of the Estate of Grace C. Edwards
Accession Number
26.149
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Why did the curator put these objects together?
The views shared by many Americans around the centennial towards Native Americans people, contrasted with actual works made by Natives, are being highlighted here. Many people regarded natives as "Noble Savages" that were disappearing and wanted to capture and preserve that legacy.In actuality, Native American culture was alive and well. Some people continued to lived in traditional ways on tribal lands and others moved into cities and lived like "typical Americans."Thank you!You're welcome! You'll notice that many of the works in this room date to the 1870s. 1876 was the United States' Centennial celebration so it was a time of reflection -- what was America all about? How was national identity represented in visual art?Can you tell me more about this?
Of course! This portrait of a Dakota woman shows her posed in a studio setting wearing traditional Dakota dress. The ceremonial blanket of fur-lined buffalo hide, painted with abstract motifs, was a particular speciality of Dakota women.This work was painted in the 1920s and reflects many contemporary New Yorkers' interest in representations of the "exotic."What distinguished this from other superficial depictions of Native Americans is the studio setting. She poses proudly in traditional dress, free of the artificial narratives typically employed to create and "authentic" depiction of Native American life.
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