Great Falls Art Enrichment November-December 2014 George Catlin (1796-1872) Slide 1 •Although we may not all be familiar with the name George Catlin, we all recognize the archetypal image of the Native American that he in large part helped spread. •It is an image that shows up everywhere, from the buffalo nickel to the Redskins’ helmets, depicting a stern and proud male warrior, armed, painted and adorned, from the nomadic, Buffalo-hunting tribes of the Plains. •Of course Catlin did not create this image, but George Catlin by William Fisk, 1849 Stu-mick-o-súcks, Buffalo Bull's Back Fat, Head Chief, Blood Tribe, Blackfoot/Kainai, 1832 he recorded it in paint, even as the cultures he painted were disappearing, and he exhibited these paintings around the world.

Slide 2 •Catlin’s interest in Native Americans dated back to his childhood in Pennsylvania. •One of 14(!) children, he heard tales of Native Americans from his mother, who had been captured by them when she was 8 years old. His family also had numerous visitors who had traveled the frontier, and their stories intrigued him.

Jú-ah-kís-gaw, Woman with Her Child in a Cradle, Ojibwe, Chippewa, 1835 Ru-Ton-Ye-Wee-Ma, Strutting Pigeon, Wife of White Cloud, Iowa, 1844

Slide 3 •As a young man, Catlin practiced law for a time, but he found art more interesting and taught himself to paint portraits, initially of prominent politicians. •He decided to change his subject matter after seeing a visiting delegation of Native Americans from the West in Philadelphia; he had found his life’s work.

Mah-To-Toh-Pa, Four Bears, Second Chief, in Full Dress, Mandan, Numakiki, 1832 The Watchful Fox, Chief of the Tribe, 1835

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Great Falls Art Enrichment November-December 2014 George Catlin (1796-1872) Slide 4 •In 1839, Catlin embarked on a two-year journey through the American West with William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, painting portraits of prominent Native Americans, landscapes of their St. Louis from the River Below, 1832-33 War Dance, Sioux, 1845-48 homelands, and pictures of their games, dances and ceremonies. Belle Vue, Indian Agency of Major Dougherty, •Over the next eight years, in an extraordinary 870 Miles Above St. Louis, 1832 burst of creative productivity and explorational bravery, Catlin would travel more than 1800 Sioux Camp Scene, 1841 miles up the Missouri River, visit over 140 tribes and paint over 600 portraits and scenes from Native American life. •Using thin paint and rapidly “drawing” with a paintbrush, he was able to complete up to six “sketches” of paintings a day.

Slide 5 •There was good reason for his haste. In addition to marking the beginning of his expedition, the year 1830 was the year in which the Indian Removal Act began to be carried out. •By its terms, over the next 12 years, the Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie, 1832-33 Band of Sioux Moving Camp, 1837-39 Prairie Meadows Burning, 1832 Buffalo Chase in Winter, remaining Native Americans would be removed Indians on Snowshoes, 1832-33 from lands east of the Mississippi. •Native Americans of the time were endangered on many other fronts, as well. Diseases, particularly smallpox, were decimating many tribes; the herds of buffalo that were integral to their lifestyle were rapidly dwindling; and the railroads and farms of American civilization were encroaching ever more on formerly Native American lands.

Slide 6 •Catlin wanted to create a pictorial record of the Native Americans before their way of life changed forever, as dramatically illustrated by this famous work, based on a true pair of meetings between Catlin and Pigeon’s Egg Head both before and after he visited the Capitol and left laden with gifts from the US government (including whiskey and tobacco). •Catlin clearly feared that Western civilization would corrupt and destroy Native American Wi-Jun-Jon, Pigeon’s Egg Head (The Light) Going to and Returning from Washington, Assiniboine/Nakoda, 1837-39 culture.

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Great Falls Art Enrichment November-December 2014 George Catlin (1796-1872)

Slide 7 •Catlin’s work shows how art can be a means of recording endangered cultures. •One of the tribes whose ceremonies he observed and painted, the Mandan of the Missouri River, was completely decimated and extinguished by smallpox within five years of Bull-Dance, Mandan O-Kee-Pa Ceremony, Mandan/Numakiki, 1832 the time Catlin painted them, so that Catlin’s paintings are actually the only record we have of their distinctive rituals.

Buffalo Dance, Mandan, Mandan/Numakiki, 1835-37

Slide 8 •Catlin was also able to create memorable images that brought to life other extraordinary Buffalo Hunt under the Wolfskin Mask, 1832–33 customs of Native American, especially their cunning and daring in hunting, fighting and horsemanship, as seen here.

Comanche Feats of Horsemanship 1834–35

Slide 9 •Catlin also painted some of the earliest pictures of the game invented by the Choctaw tribe and now played by many children here at Great Falls – lacrosse!

Ball-play of the Choctaw—Ball up, Choctaw, 1846–50

Chul-Lock-Chish-Ko, Drinks the Juice of the Stone, in Ball- Player’s Dress, Choctaw, 1834

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Great Falls Art Enrichment November-December 2014 George Catlin (1796-1872) Slide 10 •Catlin’s portraits have much in common with many traditional portraits, such as those that can be found in the National Portrait Gallery, despite their different subject matter. •The subjects adopt formal and serious poses and are often painted from the bust up. •Emphasis is on their station in life, which is conveyed by their attire and accoutrements, as opposed to their inner thoughts. Wash-Ka-Mon-Ya, Fast Dancer, A Warrior, Iowa, 1844 Dwight D. Eisenhower by Thomas Edgar Stephens, 1947 •This emphasis also allows us to see Native American art within Catlin’s Western art, as the Native Americans in his paintings wear headdresses, beadwork and jewelry and display painted shields and adornments that were artistic achievements in their own right.

Slide 11 •Catlin painted portraits of Native American children, too. •He was not above exploiting the Native Americans for his own gain. In addition to being a painter and an explorer, Catlin was a showman and entrepreneur. •Along with Buffalo Bill, he was one of the originators of the traveling Wild West shows

Ud-je-jock, Pelican, a Boy, Ojibwe/Chippewa, 1831 Pshán-shaw, Sweet-scented Grass, Twelve-year-old Daughter of Bloody Hand, Arikara/Sahnish, 1832 that toured the country and the world with great th popularity during the 19 century. •Catlin called his show the Indian Gallery and included in it his paintings and collection of Native American clothes and artifacts. •The Indian Gallery was exhibited widely, from Washington and New York to Paris and London.

Slide 12 •Catlin did sincerely value Native American culture, and his deepest hope (albeit for financial as well as altruistic motives) was that Congress would purchase the Indian Gallery for display to the nation at the Smithsonian. •It did not, and Catlin was forced to sell the collection to a wealthy Philadelphia industrialist named Joseph Harrison to cover his debts. In his old age, however, Catlin lived and painted in a room in the Smithsonian Castle. La-Doo-Ke-A, Buffalo Bull, A Grand Pawnee Warrior, Pawnee, 1832 •His dream was realized after his death when Harrison’s widow donated over 400 paintings from the Indian Gallery to the Smithsonian in 1879, where they can still be viewed today at the American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery.

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