Man's Shirt
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Among the oldest of its kind in existence, this finely tailored deerskin shirt has large rosettes of porcupine quillwork on the front and shoulders. The designs in the rosettes are thought to be abstractions of the animal enclosures used in the buffalo-hunt drive, indicating the shirt may have been associated with buffalo-calling rituals. Two rows of soft brown circles, created by over-painting the deeply stained surface of red ocher, embellish the garment.
Artwork Details
- Title: Man's Shirt
- Date: ca. 1750
- Geography: United States, Northern Plains
- Culture: Northern Plains, probably Arapaho or Gros Ventre
- Medium: Native tanned leather, porcupine quills, pigment
- Dimensions: Length: 31 7/8 in. (81 cm)
Width: 21 1/8 in. (53.7 cm) - Classification: Hide-Costumes
- Credit Line: Musée du quai Branly, Paris (71.1878.32.145)
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing