Canoe of Indians

Canoe of Indians

62.181.11

This painting depicts a group of Anishinaabek in a birchbark canoe, including one man, four women, two infants and two children. The three women whose dress is visible all wear blue strap dresses, two with blue sleeves and one with red sleeves. The man wears a cotton print shirt.

Eastman Johnson

1856 - 57

Anishinaabe

Grand Portage, MN

Text from the exhibit, "Eastman Johnson: Paintings and Drawings of the Lake Superior Ojibwe," at the Tweed Museum of Art, 2006: The classic birch bark canoe of the Woodland Indians was the Ojibwe mode of travel along the lakes and rivers of the North Shore. People who recalled Eastman Johnson's visit to Lake Superior said he learned to paddle a canoe skillfully. The largest of Johnson's Grand Portage paintings, this is also one of the most puzzling: the perspective and the placement of the figures are too clumsy to make the scene as convincing as his individual portraits. As you can see by comparing the faces, the painting may never have been finished. Yet it captures in full color an essential part of Great Lakes life.

oil on canvas

Gift of Richard Teller Crane

strap dress

Eastman Johnson: Paintings and Drawings of the Lake Superior Ojibwe

Johnston, Patricia Condon. 1983. Eastman Johnson’s Lake Superior Indians. Afton, MN: Johnston Pub.

47.96147, -89.75949 (N 47°57′41″ W 89°45′34")

Low resolution images on this site are covered by Creative Commons 4.0. Requests for high resolution versions should be directed to the St. Louis County Historical Society.

oil painting

17 x 38 inches

not available online