Niätóhsä, Gros Ventre Chief

Niätóhsä (The Little Frenchman/French Child) posed for Bodmer upon their first meeting, on the keelboat Flora during the upriver journey to Fort McKenzie. With little time to complete the portrait, Bodmer concentrated his efforts on the chief’s facial likeness. His topknot interested Maximilian, who observed that this hairstyle was worn only by Gros Ventre healers. The chief smokes from a tobacco pipe, a formal manner of social introduction practiced across the Northern Plains. While Bodmer sketched, Niätóhsä conversed in Blackfoot with the crew’s interpreter, a man with the surname Doucette. The horizontal painting’s unfinished state reveals the artist’s working method: he first organized a composition using graphite, then painted the unique personal details he found most interesting.