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George Catlin was born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on July 26, 1796, into the family of Putnam and Polly (Sutton) Catlin. His mother and grandmother had been held hostage during an Indian uprising in Pennsylvania known as the Wyoming Valley Massacre some 20 years earlier, and Catlin would have heard many stories about Indians as a child. He spent much of his childhood wandering in the woods and searching for Indian artifacts.
As a young man Catlin trained to be a lawyer, and he briefly practiced law in Wilkes Barre.
The American artist George Catlin became fascinated with Native Americans in the early 1800s and traveled extensively throughout North America so he could document their lives on canvas. In his paintings and writings Catlin portrayed Indian society in considerable detail. The vivid paintings produced by Catlin were not always appreciated in his own time. He tried to sell his paintings to the U.S. government, and was rebuffed. But eventually he was recognized as a remarkable artist and today many of his paintings reside in the Smithsonian Institution and other museums.
By 1821, at the age of 25, Catlin was living in Philadelphia and trying to pursue a career as a portrait painter. While in Philadelphia Catlin enjoyed visiting the museum administered by Charles Wilson Peale, which contained numerous items related to Indians and also to the expedition of Lewis and Clark. When a delegation of western Indians visited Philadelphia, Catlin painted them and decided to learn all he could of their history.
In the late 1820s Catlin painted portraits, including one of New York governor DeWitt Clinton. At one point Clinton gave him a commission to create lithographs of scenes from the newly opened Erie Canal, for a commemorative booklet. In 1828 Catlin married Clara Gregory, who was from a prosperous family of merchants in Albany, New York. Despite his happy marriage, Catlin desired to venture off see the west.
In 1830, Catlin realized his ambition to visit the west, and arrived in St. Louis, which was then the edge of the American frontier. He met William Clark, who, a quarter-century earlier, had led the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean and back. Clark held an official position as the superintendent of Indian affairs. He was impressed by Catlin’s desire to document Indian life, and provided him with passes so he could visit Indian reservations. The aging explorer shared with Catlin an extremely valuable piece of knowledge, Clark’s map of the West. It was, at the time, the most detailed map of North America west of the Mississippi.
Throughout the 1830s Catlin traveled extensively, often living among the Indians. In 1832 he began to paint the Sioux, who were at first highly suspicious of his ability to record detailed images on paper. However, one of the chiefs declared that Catlin’s “medicine” was good, and he was allowed to paint the tribe extensively. Catlin often painted portraits of individual Indians, but he also depicted daily life, recording scenes of rituals and even sports. In one painting Catlin depicted himself and an Indian guide wearing the pelts of wolves while crawling in the prairie grass to closely observe a herd of buffalo.
In 1837 Catlin opened a gallery of his paintings in New York City, billing it as “Catlin’s Indian Gallery.” It could be considered the first “Wild West” show, as it revealed the exotic life of the Indians of the west to city dwellers. Catlin wanted his exhibit to be taken seriously as historic documentation of Indian life, and he endeavored to sell his collected paintings to the US Congress. One of his great hopes was that his paintings would be the centerpiece of a national museum devoted to Indian life.
The Congress was not interested in purchasing Catlin’s paintings, and when he exhibited them in other eastern cities they were not as popular as they had been in New York. Frustrated, Catlin left for England, where he found success showing his paintings in London. Decades later, Catlin's obituary on the front page of the New York Times noted that in London he had reached great popularity, with members of the aristocracy flocking to see his paintings.
In 1841 Catlin published, in London, a book titled "Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians." The book, more than 800 pages in two volumes, contained a vast wealth of material gathered during Catlin’s travels among the Indians. The book went through a number of editions. At one point in the book Catlin detailed how the enormous herds of buffalo on the western plains were being destroyed because robes made of their fur had become so popular in eastern cities.
Perceptively noting what today we would recognize as an ecological disaster, Catlin made a startling proposal. He suggested that the government should set aside enormous tracts of western lands to preserve them in their natural state. George Catlin can thus be credited with first suggesting the creation of National Parks.
Catlin returned to the United States, and again tried to get the Congress to buy his paintings. He was unsuccessful. He was swindled in some land investments and was in financial distress. He decided to return to Europe. In Paris, Catlin managed to settle his debts by selling the bulk of his collection of paintings to an American businessman, who stored them in a locomotive factory in Phildelphia. Catlin’s wife died in Paris, and Catlin himself moved on to Brussels, where he would live until returning to America in 1870.
Catlin died in Jersey City, New Jersey in late 1872. His obituary in the New York Times lauded him for his work documenting Indian life, and criticized the Congress for not buying his collection of paintings. The collection of Catlin paintings stored in the factory in Philadelphia was eventually acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, where it resides today. Other Catlin works are in museums around the United States and Europe.
George Catlin was known for his paintings of Native American culture during the early 19th century. Catlin’s legacy is complex. His paintings made an indispensable contribution to our understanding of the Plains Indians of the early nineteenth century, yet at the same time they are sometimes primitive in execution and, for all his enthnographic care, inaccurate. Nevertheless, Catlin’s influence was and continues to be immense. He visualized the West and depicted Indians for a vast national and international audience. Further, his emphasis on firsthand observation and experience became part of the ethos of Western art.
Tipis
An Indian Ball-Play
1850Ball-play Dance
1834Attacking the Grizzly Bear
Mó-sho-la-túb-bee, Chief of the Choctaw Tribe
1834Osceola
Ah-yaw-ne-tak-oár-ron
The Cutting Scene, Mandan O-kee-pa Ceremony
1832Little Bear, Hunkpapa Brave
1832Wi-jún-jon, Going to and Returning from Washington
Buffalo Bull Grazing
1845Lithograph of Lacrosse players
Quotations:
"The early part of my life was whiled away, apparently, somewhat in vain, with books reluctantly held in one hand, and a rifle or fishing-pole firmly and affectionately grasped in the other."
"At the urgent request of my father, who was a practicing lawyer, I was prevailed upon to abandon these favorite themes, and also my occasional dabblings with the brush, which had secured already a corner in my affections; and I commenced reading the law for a profession, under the direction of Reeve and Gould, of Connecticut. I attended the lectures of these learned judges for two years – was admitted to the bar – and practiced the law...in my native land, for the term of two or three years; when I very deliberately sold my law library and all (save my rifle and fishing-tackle), and converting their proceeds into brushes and paint pots, I commenced the art of painting in Philadelphia, without teacher or adviser."
“The site of the lower town, is one of the most beautiful and pleasing that can be seen in the world, and even more beautiful than imagination could ever create.”
In 1824 Catlin was elected to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Quotes from others about the person
He has brought back alive the proud and free characters of these chiefs, both their nobility and manliness.
George Catlin met Clara Bartlett Gregory in 1828 in her hometown of Albany, New York. After their marriage, she accompanied him on one of his journeys west. They eventually had four children. Clara and his youngest son died while visiting Paris in 1845. Many historians and descendants believe George Catlin had two families; his acknowledged family on the east coast of the United States, but also a family farther west, started with a Native American woman.
