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Visit to the Louvre- Oath of the Horatii
Visit to the Louvre- Oath of the Horatii
On View
On view
Object number2026.10

Visit to the Louvre- Oath of the Horatii

Artist (American of Choctaw descent, 1939)
Date1984
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsframe: 61 1/4 × 61 7/8 in. (155.6 × 157.2 cm)
canvas: 55 7/8 × 52 1/8 in. (141.9 × 132.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of John and Susan Horseman in memory of their son Jonathan
Label TextPart of Walt Wooten’s Visit to the Louvre series, this work reconsiders American artist George Catlin’s 1845 exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, where he presented paintings of Indigenous peoples and brought a delegation of nearly a dozen representatives of the Ojibwe people from present-day Iowa. Wooten’s series reimagines these encounters, placing the delegates within the museum’s most iconic galleries and reclaiming space for figures historically marginalized within art institutions. Here, two Ojibwe men are pictured in front of Jacques-Louis David’s The Oath of the Horatii, 1784–85. Their richly colored garments echo the palette of David’s composition, creating a visual dialogue between neoclassical heroism and Indigenous presence. By inserting these figures into the history of European painting, Wooten invites viewers to reconsider which stories are centered in art museums, and how narratives of antiquity and heroism shape cultural value and inform national identity across America and beyond. [Label Text: For the People: America at 250 Exhibition, June 27 - October 4, 2026]

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