Catlin Feasted by the Mandan Chief - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Mandan War Chief with His Favorite Wife - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection The Cheyenne Brothers Starting on Their Fall Hunt - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection The Cheyenne Brothers Returning From Their Fall Hunt - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection A Cheyenne Warrior Resting His Horse - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Four Kiowa Indians - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Camanchee Horsemanship - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Sham Fight of the Camanchees - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection The Scalper Scalped-Pawnees and Cheyennes - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Encampment of Pawnee Indians at Sunset - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Caddoe Indians Gathering Wild Strawberries - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection American Pasturage-Prairies of the Platte - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Buffalo Chase-Bulls Protecting the Calves - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Catlin and Two Companions Shooting Buffalo - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Buffalo Lancing in the Snow Drifts-Sioux - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Nine Ojibbeway Indians in London - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Expedition Encamped on a Texas Prairie. April 1686 - National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection Maney Snows Have Fallen...(Letter from Ah-Wa-Cous (Charles Russell) to Short Bull)Trouble on the Horizon (Prospectors discover an Indian Camp)Plunder on the Horizon (Indians Discover Prospectors)The Marriage Ceremony (Indian Love Call)When Cowboys Get in Trouble (The Mad Cow)Returning to CampCaptain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Meeting with the Indians of the NorthwestWhen Blackfeet and Sioux MeetThe Buffalo Hunt (Wild Meat for Wild Men)Man's Weapons Are Useless When Nature Goes Armed (Weapons of the Weak; Two of a Kind Win)Utica (A Quiet Day in Utica)Counting Coup (Medicine Whip)Buffalo Bill's Duel With YellowhandWounded (The Wounded Buffalo)When White Men Turn RedBuffalo Hunt (bronze) - Private Collection Indian EncampmentThe Forty-ninersRounded-UpThe Apaches!Among The Led HorsesThe Unknown ExplorersThe Cow PuncherBuffalo Runners—Big Horn BasinThe Thunder-Fighters Would take Their Bows and Arrows, Their Guns, Their Magic DrumThe PuncherThe SentinelSelf-Portrait On A HorseApache Medicine SongThe Luckless HunterA Taint on the WindThe Love CallA Figure of the Night (The Sentinel)Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio. Hunting Scenes and Amusements of the Rocky Mountains and Prairies of America. From Drawings and Notes of the Author, Made During Eight Years' Travel Amongst Forty-Eight of the Wildest and Most Remote Tribes of Savages in North America. - Private Collection Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians...Written During Eight Years' Travel [1832-1839] Amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians in North America...With...Illustrations, Carefully Engraved from His Original Paintings. - Private Collection Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians with letters and notes written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing... - Private Collection Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio. Hunting Scenes and Amusements of the Rocky Mountains and Prairies of America. From Drawings and Notes of the Author, Made During Eight Years' Travel Amongst Forty-Eight of the Wildest and Most Remote Tribes of Savages in North America. - Private Collection
“…nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their [the Indians’] country, and becoming their historian…”
George Catlin was born July 26, 1796 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. His interest in Native Americans may have begun at an early age with tales of his mother’s capture (and safe return) when she was seven by Iroquois Indians and his family’s friendly contact with an Oneida family. Many details about him remain a mystery, but he was determined to paint and document as many American Indians as possible, afraid westward expansion would destroy them and their ways of life. Catlin started his professional life as a lawyer, studying in Litchfield, Connecticut, being admitted to the Bar in 1818 and working with his brother Charles. George began trying his hand at being a miniature painter and portraitist soon after. In 1820 he moved to Philadelphia, living and working as an artist becoming close friends with portraitist Thomas Sully’s future son-in-law, John Neagle. Catlin began exhibiting artwork at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts being elected an academician in 1824. In 1826 Catlin moved to New York and became a member of the National Academy of Design. During this time he painted his first Indian portrait, the Seneca Chief, Red Jacket.
George married Clara Bartlett Gregory in Albany, New York in 1828, with George continuing to work as a portraitist on the East Coast. Wanting to travel west George went to St. Louis in 1830 to meet with Gen. William Clark, commissioner of the new Missouri Territory, hoping to travel with Clark and other military expeditions. In 1832 George began what was to become his most famous era of travel, first traveling up the Missouri River to Fort Union. During this trip Catlin painted a number of Indian tribes, including Sioux, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and Mandan. George exhibited his growing collection in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, and New Orleans. Catlin continued to travel including with an 1834 expedition led by General Leavenworth and Colonel Dodge to Fort Gibson, near Pawnee and Comanche territories in today’s southern Oklahoma. George and Clara traveled up the Mississippi River to Fort Snelling where he was able to paint Sioux, Chippewa, Saux, and Fox. Catlin opened his Indian Gallery in New York City in 1837 with shows in D.C., Baltimore, Boston, and Philadelphia. During this time George tried unsuccessfully many times to have the U.S. Government buy his collection.
George Catlin | Catlin Feasted by the Mandan Chief
With declining interest in his exhibit and the failure to have his collection bought by Congress, George set off for England in 1839. The Indian Gallery opened at the Egyptian Hall in London in 1840. With great personal expense, George self-published Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians in 1841. Catlin exhibited his collection in England and elsewhere in Europe, eventually storing the paintings and traveling with performers while he told of his encounters in the American West with artifacts and props. In 1843, he hired nine Ojibwa Indians to travel with the show throughout the U.K. He then hired and toured with 14 Iowa Indians. In 1845, Catlin moved his family and the Iowa to Paris. He toured with the Iowa in Europe while also enjoying the patronage of the French King, Louis-Phillippe. During this period Catlin also painted a series of works depicting the LaSalle Expedition. Unfortunately, the French monarchy fell and George fled to England with his children. Having incurred massive debts throughout his life and now in England, he was forced to put his Indian Gallery up for auction. Railroad tycoon Joseph Harrison agreed to buy the collection in its entirety in exchange for paying off most of Catlin’s debt. Catlin spent much of the rest of his life trying to replicate his Gallery from notes, sketches, and memory making up his Cartoon Collection, which was exhibited at the Smithsonian (1872) after returning to America in 1870, having spent 31 years abroad. Catlin died in New Jersey surrounded by remaining family December 23, 1872.