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Ball Playing among the Sioux Indians, 1851

Seth Eastman

Seth Eastman’s painting of Native American men playing a spirited, and somewhat violent, game that inspired modern lacrosse is based on sketches he made during his time as an army officer and mapmaker.

The artist spent seven years stationed at Fort Snelling, a military post on the upper Mississippi River. During that time, he made over 400 sketches of ceremonies, games, and daily life among the Dakota (whom Eastman would have known as the Sioux) and Ojibwe peoples camped nearby. Eastman later turned many of these drawings into oil paintings. He completed this work in a Washington, DC, studio not far from what is now the site of the National Gallery.

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 71.4 × 103.2 cm (28 1/8 × 40 5/8 in.)

framed: 90.8 × 121.9 × 11.4 cm (35 3/4 × 48 × 4 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran)

Accession Number

2014.79.46

Artists / Makers

Seth Eastman (artist) American, 1808 - 1875

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Detail Information

Inscription

lower right: S. Eastman / 1851

Provenance

William Wilson Corcoran [1798-1888], Washington, by 1857;[1] gift 1869 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] See Charles Lanman, Catalogue of W. W. Corcoran's Private Gallery (Washington, 1857), no. 7.

Associated Names

Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran, William Wilson

Exhibition History

1893: Exhibition of American Retrospective Art, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, no. 2815.

1935: American Genre, The Social Scene, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1935, no. 34.

1936: An Exhibition of American Genre Painting, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, February-March 1936, no. 34.

1936: Wisconsin Centennial Art Exhibition, University of Wisconsin, Madison, June-July 1936, no. 4, as Ball Play on the Prairies.

1944: Sport in American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1944, no. 38, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1954: Westward the Way: The Character and Development of the Louisiana Territory as seen by Artists and Writers of the Nineteenth Century, Cirty Art Museum of St. Louis; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1954-1955, no. 72, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1959: Loan Exhibition. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art: A Benefit Exhibition in Honor of the Gallery's Centenary, Wildenstein, New York, 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro., as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1959: The American Muse: Parallel Trends in Literature and Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959, no. 40, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1961: Seth Eastman, Marion Koogler McNay Institute, San Antonio, 1961, unpublished checklist.

1966: Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist.

1968: The American Vision: Paintings 1825-1975, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, 1968, no. 60, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1970: The American Scene: 1820-1900, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, 1970, unnumbered catalogue, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1973: The American Frontier: Images and Myths, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1973, no. 26, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1976: Corcoran [The American Genius]. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue.

1980: The Olympics in Art: An Exhibitioin of Works of Art Related to Olympic Sports, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, 1980, no. 94, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1981: Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL, 1981-1983, no. 4, repro., as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1981: Opening the Way West: Paintings of the Early Nineteenth Century Depicting the Drama of Exploration in the American West, Katonah Gallery, New York, 1981, no. 19, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

1983: The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800-1915, National Museum of American Art, Washington, 1984, unnumbered catalogue.

1987: American Frontier Life: Genre Painting in the American West, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1987-1988, unnumbered catalogue.

1991: West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920, National Museum of American Art, Washington, 1991, unnumbered catalogue.

1993: The Century Club Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1993, unpublished checklist.

2004: Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2004, unpublished checklist.

2005: Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 23, as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

2008: The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2013: American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

1857: Lanman, Charles. Catalogue of W.W. Corcoran's Gallery. Washington, 1857: 7, no. 7.

1947: Corcoran Gallery of Art. Handbook of the American Paintings in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1947: 29.

1959: Corcoran Gallery of Art. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1959: 50, repro., as Lacrosse Playing Among the Sioux Indians.

2011: Strong, Lisa. "Seth Eastman, Ball Playing among the Sioux Indians." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 21,104-105, 262, repro.