Update Our ticketing, donations, and membership sales portal is down for scheduled maintenance on the afternoon of 4/11.
Watercolor on paper portrait of a Native American (Mi'kmaq) man in a brimmed hat, blue tunic, silver gorget around his neck, blue leggings and quilled moccasins steps over the rim of his birch bark canoe on to the shore. He carries a gun in his right hand. He smokes a pipe and looks into the distance. Behind him is a blue body of water with a tall masted ship to the right at the horizon. Patches of green grass and a jumble of brown rocks are in the extreme foreground. At the center base of the work is a pencilled title. At the far lower right is the artist's pencil signature. See "Inscriptions" section for details.
paintings (visual works)
watercolors (paintings)
watercolor (paint)
paper (fiber product)
Painting
"Artful Stories": In the mid-nineteenth century when this watercolor was painted, the Mikmaq people (Mikmaw in the singular) continued to occupy areas of northern New England and southern Canada where they had lived for centuries. They still live in those areas today. Unlike many artists who painted romanticized views of Native Americans, Isaac Sprague, a protégé of the great naturalist John James Audubon, accurately recorded the details of this Mikmaw mans clothing and environment.
"I Sprague" (handwritten)
"Mic Mac Indian and Canoe" (handwritten)
"June 29 1969/Today I went down/to visit with Priscilla/Sprague niece (/) of Isaac/Sprague, artist. She gave me several things [illegible] to Isaac Sprague/ making this Indian watercolor/ [signature cut off]" (handwritten)
389.1
Sprague, Isaac, 1811-1895 (Artist)
New Hampshire, United States
6 3/4 x 4 7/8 (HxW) (inches)
Museum Purchase
2011.117.1
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].
Sign up to our newsletter for our latest news and events
