Rookwood Pottery was the best-known and longest-flourishing American art pottery company. Its establishment in 1880 predated the American Arts and Crafts movement and it survived for eighty-seven years, long after the movement had ended. This vase was painted by Grace Young, who was among the first of Rookwood’s artists to depart from floral decorations in favor of portraits. Many portrait vases were executed at Rookwood in the 1890s, and subjects included African Americans, Native Americans, and adaptations from Old Master and modern German portraits. This vase depicts Pablino Diaz of the Kiowa tribe, who then lived in Oklahoma. It is based on a photograph taken around 1898.