Colonel Guy Johnson and Karonghyontye (Captain David Hill)
1776
Painter, American, 1738 - 1820

Hostilities between North American colonists and Britain were boiling over in the 1770s when Benjamin West painted this double portrait. The British wanted to ensure the loyalty of the Mohawk people, the easternmost tribe of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy), in case of war.
British Colonel Guy Johnson commissioned the painting while in London with Mohawk Chief Karonghyontye in 1775. It commemorates Johnson’s promotion to British superintendent of the “Six Nations” (as the British called the Iroquois Confederacy). Karonghyontye was a prominent leader with a key role in diplomatic conversations. But West paints him gazing at Johnson from the shadows, a sign of their unequal alliance.

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 62
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 202 x 138 cm (79 1/2 x 54 5/16 in.)
framed: 222.6 x 160 x 9.5 cm (87 5/8 x 63 x 3 3/4 in.) -
Accession
1940.1.10
More About this Artwork

Interactive Article: Art up Close: Bringing Mohawk Chief Karonghyontye out of Benjamin West’s Shadow
Exploring the details of this 18th-century painting, learn the story of Native Americans’ participation in the American Revolution and their long-standing fights for land rights.
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Ethel Dixon-Brown [d. c. 1950], Henfield, Sussex;[1] (Sotheby's, London, 7 December 1927, no. 54, as a portrait of Sir Joseph Banks); bought by (Frank T. Sabin, London);[2] sold 27 November 1936 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[3] sold 21 January 1937 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1940 to NGA.
[1] "Miss E. Dixon Brown, Martyn Lodge, Henfield, Sussex" is identified as the pre-sale owner in the records of the firm of Frank T. Sabin, compiled in 1927 (letter from Sidney Sabin dated 6 June 1991, in NGA curatorial files). This is confirmed by a label on the back of the painting. The owner's name has been misread in the past as E. Dina Brown. She was the daughter of the Reverend Dixon Dixon Brown [1826-1901] and his wife Georgina Elizabeth Dixon Brown [d. 1914]; see Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 17th ed., London, 1952: 278-279. Her death date was provided by Irene Dixon-Brown, her nephew's wife (letter of 15 July 1991, in NGA curatorial files). The earlier history of the painting is unknown.
[2] Sotheby and Co., Catalogue of Valuable Pictures by Old Masters of the Italian School; Portraits of the Dutch and English Schools; Pictures and Drawings of the English and French Schools, London, 1927: 14; annotated copy, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
[3] The date of the sale is recorded in a stockbook owned by Sabin Galleries, Ltd., London (letter from Sidney F. Sabin dated 6 June 1991, in NGA curatorial files). According to M. Knoedler & Co., the painting was consigned to them in October 1936 {letter from Melissa De Medeiros, Knoedler Librarian, 28 May 1991, in NGA curatorial files).
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1938
Portraits of American Indians from Pocahontas to Sitting Bull, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1938, uncatalogued, as Joseph Brant and Colonel Guy Johnson
1967
The Painter and the New World/ Le Peintre et le Nouveau Monde, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1967, no. 85, as Colonel Guy Johnson and Chief Joseph Brant
1975
The European Vision of America, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Cleveland Museum of Art; Grand Palais, Paris, 1975-1977, no. 177, repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson
1984
Georgian Canada: Conflict and Culture, 1745-1820, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1984, no. 115, as Portrait of Colonel Guy Johnson
2013
American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Transatlantic World, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2013-2014, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
Bibliography
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 213, no. 496, as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 249, repro. 10, as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 138, color repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 131, repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 50, repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1958
Hamilton, Milton W. "Joseph Brant - The Most Painted Indian." New York History 39, no. 2 (April 1958): 122-123.
1959
Evans, Grose. Benjamin West and the Taste of His Times. Carbondale, Illinois, 1959: 46, 119 n. 53, pl. 33.
Bouton, Margaret. American Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number One in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 16, color repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 218, repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:376, color repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1967
Hamilton, Milton W. Sir William Johnson and the Indians of New York. Albany, 1967: 39, repro.
1968
Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 14, 154-155, color repro.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 120, repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1974
Parry, Ellwood C., III. The Image of the Indian and the Black Man in American Art, 1590-1900. New York, 1974: 31, repro. 33, 34.
1977
Dillenberger 1977, 23-24, pl. 13.
1978
King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 69, pl. 40, as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1980
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 9, 12, 40-41, no. 1, color repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 256, repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1981
Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 40, color repro. 48, as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 370, no. 523, color repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1986
Von Erffa and Staley 1986, 59 (color repro.), 523-525, no. 647.
1988
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: no. 1, color repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1991
King, J. C. H. "Woodlands Artifacts From the studio of Benjamin West, 1738-1820." American Indian Art Magazine 17, no. 1 (Winter 1991): 34-47, repro. 34, figure 1 (color).
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 377, repro., as Colonel Guy Johnson.
1995
Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 321-328, color repro. 323.
1998
Einhorn, Arthur and Thomas S. Abler. "Tattooed Bodies and Severed Auricles: Images of Native American Body Modification in the Art of Benjamin West." in American Indian Art Magazine. [Vol. 23, Number 4]. 1998: 43-47, repro. no. 5.
Reinhardt, Leslie. "British and Indian Identities in a Picture by Benjamin West." Eighteenth Century Studies 31, no. 3 (1998): 283-305.
Cheney, Liana de Girolami. “Peace." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:706
1999
Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 387, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 290, no. 235, color repro.
2005
Muller, Kevin R. "Pelts and Power, Mohawks and Myth: Benjamin West's Portrait of Guy Johnson." Winterthur Portfolio 40, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 47-75, fig. 3.
Wikidata ID
Q3135552