GEORGE CATLIN

Much of what is known of American Indian life comes from the work of George Catlin, who spent about eight years traveling among 48 North American tribes. His understanding of the Indians is reflected in the nearly 600 paintings and drawings he produced, a major portion of which was preserved in the Smithsonian Institution. Accounts of his travels in the wilderness, first published in 1841, demonstrate his eloquence as a writer. As the son of a lawyer, Catlin attended law school in Litchfield, Connecticut, and practiced law for a few years in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. He moved to Philadelphia in 1823. By then, a self-taught artist, he was painting portraits and miniatures successfully, and gave up the practice of law. In 1824, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; he received membership in the National Academy of Design in 1826.

One day in Philadelphia a delegation of Plains Indians en route to Washington so impressed him that he adopted the goal of becoming pictorial historian of the Indians. As a prelude to his great Western travels, Catlin visited Indian reservations in Western New York State. He joined General William Clark, regional commissioner of Indian affairs, in St. Louis in 1830. By 1832 his mission to "snatch from hasty oblivion ... a truly lofty and noble race" was under way.

Catlin roamed the world of the Crow, Blackfoot, Comanche and Mandan fearlessly-often alone in a canoe or with his horse-sketching, painting and collecting implements and costumes, which later became his "Indian Gallery." His diplomacy enabled him to capture Indian ceremonies, games and village scenes faithfully.

Though at times criticized for lack of technical sophistication in anatomy and perspective, his Indian portraits, rendered as busts or full-length figures, exhibit remarkable ability, His work was done rapidly, but was accurate, showed great detain and was often thinly painted. Motion was emphasized in his genre scenes, where hundreds of freely sketched figures performed tribal rituals.

Catlin's paintings are an important contribution to American art, not only for their ethnological significance but also for their artistic strength.

--American Art Analog