A Portrait of Spotted Deer's Grandfather

From BooklistGr. 2^-4. Spotted Deer's grandfather, Moose Horn, was once a famous warrior, but he fears he will lose his spirit if he allows Medicine Painter to paint his portrait. Although he is unmoved by Spotted Deer's pleading, Moose Horn finally agrees to sit for the portrait after a dream convinces him that the painting might protect his people from oblivion. Littlesugar has based this picture book for older readers on the life of George Catlin, best known for his portraits and scenes of Native American life during the 1830s and 1840s. Marlowe deChristopher's many paintings are somber and reflective, perfectly echoing the story's tone. Useful for introducing Catlin's life or a unit on American Indians. Karen HuttProduct DescriptionA touching story of how Moose Horn came to allow his picture to be painted is based on the life of George Catlin, who painted the great Indian tribes of the American West and whose art hangs in the Smithsonian.From School Library JournalGrade 1-3 A journey made in 1836 by the American artist George Catlin provides the framework of this story. A Chippewa boy, Spotted Deer, urges his grandfather to let Catlin paint his portrait, but the old man is reluctant. It is not until Moose Horn observes in Catlin the same sadness for the loss of the Indians' culture that he himself feels, and is prompted by a spirit visitation of himself as a young warrior, that he allows the artist to paint him. The idea that being painted can confer a kind of immortality is a concept perhaps too advanced for the primary graders who are the likeliest audience for this story. The elegiac mood of the text is reinforced by deChristopher's oil paintings, reminiscent of Thomas Locker's work. While some of the scenes are sketchily drawn, the faces of Catlin and Moose Horn, when they are shown in close-up, are beautifully portrayed, and the affection between the old man and the boy is evident. A foreword gives an outline of Catlin's life and mentions the author's own journey gathering material for this story. Mark Sufrin's George Catlin (1991) and Anne F. Rockwell's Paintbrush and Peacepipe (1971, both Atheneum; o.p.) are biographies for older children; Russell Freedman's An Indian Winter (Holiday, 1992), also for an older audience, is about another 19th-century painter of Indians, Karl Bodmer. Pam Gosner, formerly at Maplewood Memorial Library, NJCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.From Kirkus ReviewsLittlesugar (Marie in Fourth Position, 1996, etc.) explains in a foreword how George Catlin's 19th-century paintings were innovative for recording Native American lives before the invasion of white culture, but not that his work was a forerunner to a new stereotype: the noble savage. Her picture book offers a sympathetic portrayal of how Catlin persuaded a warrior, Moose Horn, to pose for him. Spotted Deer tries to convince his grandfather to pose for the man called Medicine Painter, but Moose Horn fears that if he gives away his face, he may also lose his spirit. Gradually, as the old warrior observes Catlin painting, and subsequently has a vision, he realizes that the artist's ability to record a person's essence on canvas is of value, that Catlin might ``keep us from blowing away forever.'' The book ends, fittingly, with a portrait of the warrior--by deChristopher. His illustrations blend in well with the one Catlin reproduction included, emulating the painter's style without distorting or overshadowing it. What's missing is a better understanding of Moose Horn's fear (what it is to ``give away your face'') and any fulfillment of Littlesugar's hint that Catlin was ``less than perfect'' as an artist and as a man. Without this information, the book is something of a whitewash- -Catlin as the white hero who answers for the devastation brought upon Native American life. (Picture book. 7-11) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.About the AuthorLittlesugar is an Albert Whitman auth
Author: Littlesugar, Amy

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co

Binding: Hardcover

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0807566225

ISBN-13: 9780807566220