Billy The Kid Tintype & Antique World Weapons
Lot 305:
Extremely rare antique oil on canvas painting depicting portrait of Indian Chief by well listed artist Charles Bird King. Signed.Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Charles Bird King became famous for his portraits of distinguished Native Americans. He studied with Samuel King, colonial painter, and then at age 15, ran away to New York City where he worked in the studio of Edward Savage. From 1805 to 1812, he lived in London, studying with Benjamin West and sharing a studio with Thomas Sully. In 1816, he settled in Washington D.C., becoming the city’s first significant resident artist. He did portraits of politicians and then spent 16 years on a commission to paint members of a five-tribe Indian delegation, which came to the city in 1821. The results became the basis of the National Indian Portrait Gallery. The originals burned, but lithography copies remain.He did an occasional still life, some of them in trompe l’oeil style including The Vanity of an Artist’s Dream, which shows dusty, dilapidated books, stale food, and debris from an artist’s studio. Another work, Still Life Game, has dark tones and melancholy mood and highly realistic rendering.Size: 21 1/2 x 20 inches.Provenance: Private Collection Denver, Colorado, USA
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