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Primary sourcePainting1890

Portrait of Sitting Bull by Caroline Weldon

Caroline Weldon · 1890

An 1890 oil portrait of Sitting Bull painted from life by Caroline Weldon, an advocate who lived in his camp; it is the last portrait made before his death.

Painted from life in 1890 by an advocate who lived in his camp, this is the last known portrait of Sitting Bull before his death.

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Oil painting of a man in profile-three-quarter view with long dark hair, a white and black feather with red tip on his head, a fur-collared dark coat over a cream buckskin-style shirt with purple floral embroidery, against a dark brown background.
Caroline Weldon, Portrait of Sitting Bull, 1890. State Historical Society of North Dakota.

About this source

What it is

This oil painting of Sitting Bull was made in 1890 by Caroline Weldon, based partly on an earlier 1884 photograph. Weldon lived at Standing Rock as Sitting Bull's advocate and translator and painted several portraits of him during her time there. The painting is held by the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Why it matters

Weldon was not primarily sent to paint Sitting Bull; she went to support him and his community, and the people she helped gave her the name 'Woman Walking Ahead.' This portrait, made in the last year of his life, is said to have been damaged during the raid in which Sitting Bull was arrested and killed, making it a rare and poignant record of him shortly before his death.

Look closer

  • Why might an artist who was also an advocate paint her subject differently from a commercial photographer?
  • What details of clothing and expression stand out, and what might they tell us?
  • Why does the timing of this portrait, so close to Sitting Bull's death, matter to how we read it?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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