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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 Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online
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