George Catlin (1796 – 1872) was an American painter, author, and traveller, who specialised in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West. Travelling to the American West five times during the 1830s, Catlin was the first white man to depict Plains Indians in their native territory.
Travelling with fur company representatives, cavalry officers, and later alone on multiple western journeys, George Catlin gathered drawings, sketches, and notes that would allow him to create an “Indian Gallery”- a collection of more than 500 paintings of American Indians. By the end of the decade, he would be widely recognised as the most celebrated painter of America’s native people.
“I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000 souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams . . . as well as a very extensive and curious collection of their costumes, and all their other manufactures, from the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle.”
For more information about George Catlin see part 1. For earlier works see parts 1 - 5 also.
This is part 6 of a 7-part series on the works of George Catlin:
1844 North American Indian Portfolio
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC:
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1851-52 Mississippi, Missouri and Platte rivers:
1844 North American Indian Portfolio
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC:
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| 1845-48 War Dance, Sioux oil on canvas 66.3 x 82.6 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Battle Between Sioux and Sac and Fox oil on canvas 66.7 x 82.6 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Caddo Indians Chasing Buffalo, Cross Timbers, Texas oil on canvas 49.7 x 70 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Comanche Indians Chasing Buffalo with Lances and Bows oil on canvas 49.7 x 70 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Deer Hunting by Torchlight in Bark Canoes oil on canvas 49.5 x 70 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Elk and Buffalo Grazing among Prairie Flowers, Texas oil on canvas 49.7 x 70 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Elk and Buffalo Making Acquaintance, Texas oil on canvas 49.7 x 70 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Indian Encampment, Comanche (or Kiowa) Dressing Skins, Red River oil on canvas 49.7 x 70 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Indian Family Alarmed at the Approach of a Prairie Fire oil on canvas 50.8 x 69.4 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Portraits of a Grizzly Bear and Mouse, Life Size oil on canvas 67.5 x 82.5 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Sioux Indians on Snowshoes lancing Buffalo oil on canvas 51 x 69.4 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Stalking Buffalo, Arkansas oil on canvas 50.8 x 69.2 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1846-48 Weapons and Physiognomy of the Grizzly Bear oil on canvas 67.5 x 82.8 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| 1847 Buffalo Chase oil on canvas 64.7 x 81.2 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1847 Indian Council ( Sioux Tribe ) oil on canvas 64.7 x 81.2 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1847 The Bear Dance ( Sioux Tribe ) oil on canvas 64.7 x 80.6 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1847-48 Chief of the Taensa Indians Receiving La Salle. March 20, 1682 oil on canvas 42 x 60.3 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1847-48 De Tonty Suing for Peace in the Iroquois Village. January 2, 1680 oil on canvas 37.8 x 56.4 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1847-48 Expedition Encamped on a Texas Prairie. April 1686 oil on canvas 37.8 x 56.4 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1848 Pipestone Quarry, Coteau Des Prairies oil on canvas 48.2 x 67.3 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1848c Sioux War Council oil on canvas 64.4 x 81.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1850c Crow Chief oil on paper mounted on board 40.3 x 54.9 cm Buffalo Bill Centre of the West, Cody, Wyoming |
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| 1851-52 A Mandan Cemetery oil on canvas 28.5 x 37.4 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1851-52 Comanchee Indians Throwing the Lasso oil on canvas 28.2 x 37.1 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1851-52 Ojibbeway Indians Gathering Wild Rice oil on canvas 28.2 x 37.1 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1851-52 Prairie Meadows Burning, on the Missouri oil on canvas 28.2 x 37.1 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1851-52 Sham Fight oil on canvas 71.1 x 93.4 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1851-52 Sioux Indians Encamped, Discovering a War Party by their Shadows on the Opposite Hill oil on canvas 28.2 x 37.1 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
1851-52 Mississippi, Missouri and Platte rivers:
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| 1851-52 Buffaloes in the Salt Meadows, Upper Missouri oil on canvas 28.6 x 37,4 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1851-52 Garlick Cape, A Range of Bluffs on the Upper Mississippi oil on canvas 28.5 x 37.1 cm Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
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| 1851-52 Grassy Bluffs on the Upper Missouri oil on canvas 28.2 x 37.1 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1851-52 Mouth of the Platte River 900 Miles above St. Louis oil on canvas 28.2 x 37.1 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| 1851-52 The Brick Kilns, Volcanic Remains on the Upper Missouri oil on canvas 28.2 x 36.5 cm Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma |