Join The Collection to save, track, and explore works like this.

Cleveland Museum of Art

Spotted

Edward S. Curtis — Portfolio VI, Plate 205: Bringing the Sweat-Lodge Willows - Piegan
Edward S. Curtis

Portfolio VI, Plate 205: Bringing the Sweat-Lodge Willows - Piegan

1900

Ritualistic preparation is elevated to fine art through Curtis's documentary approach, capturing the sacred sweat lodge ceremony with respectful distance and artistic composition.

Medium
photogravure
Location
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Start the Discussion

Request access to join the discussion

Artists in conversation

Karl Moon

American · b. 1879

Moon was a contemporary of Curtis who similarly documented Native American peoples of the Southwest through ethnographic photography with sepia toned aesthetic quality and deep respect for Indigenous ceremonial life and cultural practices.

Adam Clark Vroman

American · b. 1856

Vroman photographed Hopi and Pueblo peoples in the same early 20th century period using comparable documentary and pictorialist approaches, capturing Indigenous ritual and daily life with similar compositional dignity and ethnographic sensitivity.

Roland Reed

American · b. 1864

Reed dedicated his photographic career to portraying Native American peoples of the Northern Plains including the Piegan Blackfoot with the same sepia toned pictorialist style and reverent documentary approach seen in this Curtis work.

About this work

Edward S. Curtis, Portfolio VI, Plate 205: Bringing the Sweat-Lodge Willows - Piegan, 1900

Ritualistic preparation is elevated to fine art through Curtis's documentary approach, capturing the sacred sweat lodge ceremony with respectful distance and artistic composition.

Medium
photogravure
Year
1900
Seen at
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Related themes

Indigenous Culture, Documentary, American, Native American, Early 20th Century, Portrait, Photogravure, Sepia, Ethnographic, Figurative

More works by Edward S. Curtis

Similar artists

Karl Moon, Adam Clark Vroman, Roland Reed

Collected by

Cleveland Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago