Beschreibung
Authenticy
According to Tecumseh biographer John Sugden, "No fully authenticated portrait of the Shawnee leader exists."[1] In 1868, Benson John Lossing published his Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812, which included a portrait of Tecumseh. Until that time, no portrait of Tecumseh was known to exist. Lossing said he had discovered pencil sketches of Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa in 1848, which were then in the possession of the son of Pierre Le Dru, a French trader. Le Dru was said to have made the sketches in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1808.[2]
Lossing altered the original sketch of Tecumseh by keeping the head as depicted by Le Dru, but adding a medal and the uniform of a brigadier general of the British Army. Lossing said that he seen a drawing of Tecumseh dressed that way in 1858. This drawing, he explained, had been made at Fort Malden in 1812 after the surrender of Detroit when Tecumseh was in "full dress" to celebrate the capture of Detroit.[2] Lossing's depiction of Tecumseh in a British uniform was based on the erroneous belief that Tecumseh had been a British general, although he did possess a uniform coat that he sometimes wore.[1]
Sudgen noted that Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa were never in Vincennes at the same time, so Le Dru might have mistaken one of Tenskwatawa's companions for Tecumseh, which means the only image we have of Tecumseh might not be authentic. Nevertheless, writes Sugden, "Lossing's portrait is the nearest we have to an authentic representation."[3]
References
- ↑ a b John Sugden, Tecumseh: A Life, (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997), facing p. 210
- ↑ a b Sugden, p. 402
- ↑ Sugden, p. 403