Assiniboine and Siksika Blackfoot Girl

Bodmer depicted few women and even fewer children, likely following Maximilian’s research interests and the cultural protocols of Indigenous communities. According to him, this girl was of Siksika descent and raised by her mother’s Assiniboine people. Bodmer uncharacteristically signed this full-length portrait and enhanced it with a landscape setting. Her attire indicates that she was well cared for. Strands of large blue and white glass beads imported from Venice adorn her ears and neck while thick panels of expensive trade beads decorate the shoulders of her dress. Beading was a new art form that women adapted from the more labor-intensive practice of porcupine quill embroidery.