Portrait of Sitting Bull by Henry Farny

What it is

This is a painted portrait by the artist Henry Farny, who visited Standing Rock and painted Plains peoples he saw there. It shows a man with a stern expression, red face paint, a tall feathered headdress with bison horns, a beaded collar, and a red blanket, with a hatchet at his side.

Why it matters

Farny was a non-Native artist painting from his own point of view, not Sitting Bull himself. Images like this shaped how many Americans and Europeans imagined Sitting Bull and other Lakota leaders, often mixing real observation with imagination.

Look closer

• What details make this image look dramatic or impressive?
• Why might an outside artist choose to paint Sitting Bull this way?
• What might this portrait leave out about who Sitting Bull really was?