Mato-Tope, A Mandan Chief Portrait by Karl Bodmer

Mato-Tope, A Mandan Chief (1844) by Karl Bodmer is a vintage American West fine art portrait painting. Mato-tope (also known as Ma-to-toh-pe or Four Bears) a Native American Indian, the second chief of the Mandan tribe. He was known to whites as four bears, a name he earned after charging the Assiniboine tribe during battle with the strength of four bears. He is wearing a traditional ceremonial war bonnet, war paint and a headdress made with eagle bird feathers. About the artist: Karl Bodmer (1809-1893) was a Swiss painter of the American Wild West. He accompanied German explorer Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied from 1832 through 1834 on his Missouri River expedition. Bodmer was hired as an artist with the specific intent of traveling through the American West and recording images of the different tribes they saw along the way.