- Term
George Catlin
- Alternate Term
Catlin, George
- Occupation/Role
artist
- Nationality/Ethnicity
American
- Date
1796-1872
- Remarks
George Catlin was known for painting portraits and scenes depicting various aspects of North American Indian culture. In 1830, after failing to establish himself as a portraitist in New York City, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri. There he met William Clark, the famous explorer who was then Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the West. Between 1830 and 1836 Catlin made his first explorations of the West, where he sketched the Indians and landscapes he encountered. On these journeys he also took notes for his most famous book LETTERS AND NOTES ON THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND CONDITIONS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS (1841). In the spring of 1834, Catlin embarked on his most arduous western tour, accompanying the First Regiment of United States dragoons on a diplomatic mission to the Comanches and Wichitas of what is now western Oklahoma. Catlin's Indian Gallery - his collection of hundreds of portraits, western landscapes, and scenes of Indians dances, ceremonies, domestic life, warfare and sport - was the triumphant product of his western tours. Catlin organized an extended national tour for the Indian Gallery in 1833, and in 1837 the artist tried to convince the United States government to purchase the collection. He proved unsuccessful, however, and Catlin took the Indian Gallery to London. Catlin's fortunes gradually spiraled downward, first forcing him to sell the Indian Gallery in 1852 and then to return to the United States in 1871, one year before his death. Catlin was the first artist to devote his entire career - indeed, his entire life - to the West.