Wilfred (or William) Langdon Kihn (September 5, 1898 – December 12, 1957) was a portrait painter and illustrator specializing in portraits of American Indians.

Life and career

He was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, son of Alfred Charles Kihn and Carrie Lowe (Peck) Kihn. He attended Boys' High School in Brooklyn and was recognized there for his artistic talent. He married Helen Van Tine Butler in 1920, and lived in Hadlyme and Moodus,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. He studied with the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

, 1916–17, and was a pupil of

Homer Boss Homer Boss (1882–1956) was an American painter and printmaker. He taught at the Art Students League of New York for two decades, and he had a studio in Santa Cruz, New Mexico for the remaining 25 years of his life. One of his portraits is at the ...

and Winold Reiss. Portrait of American Indians by W

Motivated by a desire to document the disappearing aboriginal culture, he spent many years visiting and living with Indian tribes in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

. In 1920, he was admitted to the

Blackfeet The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Mon ...

tribe in Montana, under the name "Zoi-och-ka-tsai-ya," meaning "Chase Enemy in Water". In 1922, the ''New York Times'' described his work as follows:

Mr. Kihn's portraits are marvels of incisive characterization. These closely studied physiognomies show no trace of the sentimental idealization from which most painters of Indian subjects find it almost impossible to escape. Each is firm, clear, and direct, recording the subtle differences of aspect difficult enough to discern in races other than our own, and seizing the essential message of the face with youthful certainty and conviction.

Throughout his career, he also illustrated a number of books, including ''Indian Days in the Canadian Rockies'' by

Marius Barbeau Charles Marius Barbeau, (March 5, 1883 – February 27, 1969), also known as C. Marius Barbeau, or more commonly simply Marius Barbeau, was a Canadian ethnographer and folklorist who is today considered a founder of Canadian anthropology. A ...

(1923) and ''Pocahontas and Her World'' by Frances Carpenter (1961). Many of his illustrations featured colorful portraits, while children's story books such as ''Flat Tail'' by Alice Gall and Fleming Crew (1935) often featured line drawings. Along with writer

Donald Barr Chidsey Donald Barr Chidsey (May 14, 1902 – March 17, 1981) was an American writer, biographer, historian, novelist and writer of adventure fiction. Biography Donald Barr Chidsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on May 14, 1902. He worked at th ...

, he was a Democratic candidate for the

Connecticut House of Representatives The Connecticut State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with ...

from the town of Lyme, in the November 2, 1948 election. He died in Lawrence Memorial Hospital,

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

, after a short illness, and was buried in Cove Cemetery, Hadlyme, Connecticut.

Collections and exhibitions

His paintings were featured in one-man and group exhibitions in many different museums and galleries, starting in the early 1920s. His work is in the permanent collections of, among others, the McCord Museum in Montreal, Quebec, and the Davison Art Center Gallery at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

, Middletown, Connecticut. In 2014, the Foosaner Art Museum at the

Florida Institute of Technology The Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech or FIT) is a private research university in Melbourne, Florida. The university comprises four academic colleges: Engineering & Science, Aeronautics, Psychology & Liberal Arts, and Business. App ...

hosted an exhibition of his works, featuring pictures from the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Geographic Society and a private collector.Foosaner Gallery
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Sources

External links

W. Langdon Kihn
page at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's Archives of American Art *
W. Langdon Kihn Papers
at the Archives of American Art.
Exhibition portraits of American Indians
by W. Langdon Kihn (1922) at

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kihn, W. 1898 births 1957 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters Artists from Brooklyn Painters from Connecticut Artists of the American West Native American history of Montana Connecticut Democrats Painters from New York City Boys High School (Brooklyn) alumni 20th-century American male artists

Life and career

Collections and exhibitions

See also

Sources

External links