The owner of this shirt painted red "power circles" arranged in a chain descending from the shoulders, from which a bolt of lightning strikes. The painted images of flying birds on the breast and back probably represent guardian spirits who offered blessings as gifts in a vision or a dream.
Artist Cheyenne, Native American
Title
  • Man's Shirt
Date ca. 1860
Medium buckskin, wool, ermine skin, human hair, glass beads and pigment
Dimensions Overall: 46 × 62 inches (116.8 × 157.5 cm)
Credit Line Founders Society Purchase with funds from Flint Ink Corporation
Accession Number 1988.27
Department Africa, Oceania & Indigenous Americas
On View Native American S130, Level 1 (see map)
Milford G. Chandler [1889-1981];
purchased by Richard A. Pohrt [1911-2005] (Flint, Michigan, USA) and his wife, Marion D. Pohrt;
1988-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
Penney, David W. Art of the American Indian Frontier: The Chandler-Pohrt Collection. Seattle and London, 1992, no. 84.

"Selected recent acquisitions." Bulletin of the DIA 64, no. 4 (1989): 54 (ill.)

Bulletin of the DIA 65, nos. 2/3 (1989): 18, fig. 13, (ill.).

Penney, David W. and George C. Longfish. Native American Art.Southport, CT, 1994, pp. 88-89.

Penney, David W. Native American Art Masterpieces. Southport, CT, 1996, pp. 42-43.

Penney, David W. Art of the American Indian Frontier: A Portfolio. New York, 1995, no. 11.