W. Langdon Kihn

Who was W. Langdon Kihn?

Wilfred Langdon Kihn was a portrait painter and illustrator specializing in portraits of American Indians.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, son of Alfred Charles Kihn and Carrie Lowe Kihn. He attended Boys' High School in Brooklyn and was recognized there for his artistic talent.

He married Helen Van Tine Butler in 1920, and lived in Hadlyme and Moodus, Connecticut.

He studied with the Art Students League, 1916–17, and was a pupil of Homer Boss and Winold Reiss.

Motivated by a desire to document the disappearing aboriginal culture, he spent many years visiting and living with Indian tribes in the Western United States. In 1920, he was admitted to the Blackfeet tribe in Montana, under the name "Zoi-och-ka-tsai-ya," meaning "Chase Enemy in Water".

His paintings were featured in one-man and group exhibitions in many different museums and galleries, starting in the early 1920s.

In 1922, the New York Times described his work as follows:

Mr. Kihn's portraits are marvels of incisive characterization. These closely studied physiognomies show no trace of the sentimental idealization from which most painters of Indian subjects find it almost impossible to escape. Each is firm, clear, and direct, recording the subtle differences of aspect difficult enough to discern in races other than our own, and seizing the essential message of the face with youthful certainty and conviction.