| Charles Bird King’s early career in Philadelphia met with lackluster success
and few commissions; after 1819 he achieved modest renown in Washington, D.C.,
painting American notables—his portraits of Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun
are in the Corcoran’s collection. King is best known for his ninety portraits
of Native American delegates to the nation’s capital, making him the
first portraitist of Western tribal leaders. Unfortunately, most of these paintings
were destroyed in an 1865 fire at the Smithsonian Institution. . . .
:: Sarah Cash, Bechhoefer Curator of American Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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