Four Indian Kings

The year 2008 marks the 225th anniversary of the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution. To commemorate this event, on view are the earliest surviving full-length oil portraits of North American aboriginal people painted from life. In 1710, four men were chosen to represent the Iroquoian Confederacy of the Mohawk River Valley before Queen Anne to highlight the plight of the colonies in the English military offensive against the French. The men were presented to the Royal court as "kings." John Verelst was commissioned to paint a portrait of each of the visitors and he did so with all the decorum appropriate to royalty and to heads of state.