W. Langdon Kihn
Wilfred Langdon Kihn (often called William Langdon Kihn) was an American portrait painter and illustrator who specialized in Native American subjects. He was born on September 5, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, to Alfred C. Kihn and Carrie Lowe Kihn. He showed artistic talent at Boys' High School in Brooklyn and later studied at the Art Students League.
From 1916 to 1917, Kihn studied with Homer Boss and Winold Reiss. He spent many years traveling through the Western United States, living with Indigenous communities to document their cultures as they faced change. In 1920 he was admitted to the Blackfeet tribe in Montana, taking the name Zoi-och-ka-tsai-ya, meaning "Chase Enemy in Water."
Kihn was known for his searing portraits, which were described as clear, direct, and free of sentimental idealization. He painted many portraits and also worked as an illustrator. His books illustrations included Indian Days in the Canadian Rockies by Marius Barbeau (1923) and Pocahontas and Her World by Frances Carpenter (1961). He also created line drawings for children’s books such as Flat Tail by Alice Gall and Fleming Crew (1935).
He married Helen Van Tine Butler in 1920 and lived in Hadlyme and Moodus, Connecticut. In 1948, he and writer Donald Barr Chidsey ran as Democrats for the Connecticut House of Representatives from Lyme.
Kihn died on December 12, 1957, in New London, Connecticut, after a short illness and was buried in Cove Cemetery, Hadlyme. His paintings were shown in many solo and group exhibitions starting in the early 1920s. His work is held in permanent collections at institutions such as the McCord Museum in Montreal and the Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. In 2014, the Foosaner Art Museum at the Florida Institute of Technology hosted an exhibition of his works, featuring pieces from the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Geographic Society, and a private collector.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 06:56 (CET).