Ee-mat-lá-, King Phillip, Second Chief

About this artwork

George Catlin painted Seminole chief King Phillip at Fort Moultrie, near Charleston, South Carolina, in January 1838. Catlin described him as a “very aged chief, who has been a man of great notoriety and distinction in his time.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 57, 1841; reprint 1973)

Art Historical Context

In 1838, renowned artist George Catlin captured dignified likeness of Ee-mat-lá, known as King Phillip, the second chief of the Seminole, in this striking oil portrait. Painted at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina, the work depicts the elderly leader during a turbulent era. Catlin himself noted in his *Letters and Notes* that Phillip was "a very chief, who has been a man of greatiety and distinction in his," highlighting his stature amid the Second Seminole War1835–1842), when the Seminoles fiercely resisted U.S. forced removal from Florida. Catlin, a pioneering 19th-century paint...

About the Artist

George Catlin · 1796–1872

George Catlin (1796–1872), born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Putnam Catlin and Polly Sutton—who had been captured by Native Americans during the 1778 Battle of Wyoming—initially pursued a legal career. Trained at Litchfield Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 1819 but abandoned law after two years to study art in Philadelphia in 1823. Self-taught as a portraitist, Catlin quickly gained ...