Mystery and uncertainty pervaded the Great American Desert for most Euro-Americans in 1830, for the "savage redman" and the mythical buffalo ruled this vast land of the Louisiana Purchase. Only the bravest of settlers and explorers dared venture into these Great Plains, and upon return, they would recount to eager Easterners wild tales of danger and adventure enlivened by their imaginations.
Romantic images of the old American West thrive in our modern culture, and most of these images stem from the adventurous artists and writers of the early 19th century.
George Catlin leads this pack of adventurers. Catlin was not the earliest painter to wander the West, but he was the first to devote an entire career to the depiction of Western subjects. The College's Hood Museum of Art is now displaying sixty of his finest works, through November 26, as part of their "Issues of Native American Identity" program for the Fall term.
Between 1830 and 1836, George Catlin made a series of expeditions to the plains beyond the Mississippi to depict Native Americans in their natural surroundings. During six separate journeys, he sketched hundreds of people and landscapes, as well as tribal scenes of dance, sport, ceremony, warfare, and domestic life. Catlin would later bring life to these sketches in his studio, fashioning scores of remarkable oil paintings and watercolors, each one detailing, examining, and applauding a culture he believed to be near extinction.
Joan Troccoli, curator of the exhibit from the Gilcrease Museum, is convinced of Catlin's noble intentions, asserting that the artist was "sustained by a strong moral sense." In fact, Troccoli believes Catlin's 1841 book, "Letters, and Notes On the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians" to be "the most eloquently stated protests against Indian removal ever written."
His work has received greater attention over the past three decades, and some critics have labeled Catlin racist in his artistic and literary depictions of Native Americans. But we clearly must commend his work's overall message when seen against the background of Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal policy and later injustices.
His body of works, entitled "The Indian Gallery," gave Easterners their first glimpse of the Great Plains. However, both the U.S. and British governments declined the purchase of his collection, so Catlin went on tour throughout Europe. He exhibited his distinctively American subject matter to scores of Europeans, all eager for a glimpse of the untamed American West.The collection's novelty, however, soon wore off, and it was eventually bought by an American manufacturer, whose widow donated it to the Smithsonian after Catlin's death.
His Works
Troccoli describes Catlin as "one of the most important cultural figures of the 19th century" and his works as "a vast and splendid archive." Although this archive influenced numerous other Western painters during the century, his works are quite unique and unmistakable. Catlin focuses on individuals and their personalities in both his watercolor portraits and oil landscapes. Faces are very detailed and lathered with emotion, while figures are hidden away under quick and vague brush strokes of clothing. Catlin creates a lighting effect that is subtle yet accurate.
His difficulty in defining human proportions is overwhelmed by his expertise in articulating landscapes. Using a rather small range of pastels, Catlin creates in many paintings a peaceful and placid solitude. Using the panorama technique which he invented, Catlin details the quite steamer plodding up a wide, lonely river. He visually describes the flowing hills and wind-blown prairies, perhaps sprinkled with a few tee-pees in the distance. Such landscapes provide a soothing description of Western life.
Other Catlin efforts, however, can prove more violent.Dark, churning clouds rage overhead as fire sweeps the plains and horses race for cover.Blood drips from an enemy's scalp, held in the fist of a feathered warrior.Tribesmen in snowshoes sprinkle the still, winter snow with blood as they spear a passing buffalo.
In between the quiet and the brutal stands yet another chapter in Catlin's story, one of subtle humor."Buffalo Chase" is an exciting look at a fleeing buffalo in the sights of a triumphant Native American. Meanwhile, Catlin's very next piece, "Buffalo Hunt, Chasing Back," reveals a wide-eyed hunter regretting his folly as an unforgiving buffalo bears down on him.Catlin's "Buffaloes," his most recognized work, stares the viewer directly into the eyes of a slightly surprised and annoyed creature who seems to ask "What are you looking at?"
Still other works examine focus more on the intricacies of Native American life. "A Mandan Cemetery" outlines a burial ritual in which bodies are wrapped in buffalo hide until decomposition. The bones are then arranged in a special manner in the burial ground. Other works depict aspects of tribal culture, including traditional dances and ceremonies.
Both the bizarre and the serene of Catlin's collection strive to accurately portray Native American culture in its pristine form. His artistic attempts develop a heroic characterization that portrays a "noble savage" in a rapidly dissolving culture. This is the romantic representation that persists to this day. Although these portrayals garner both positive and negative reactions, Catlin's underlying message is commendable. It is one of admiration and genuine sympathy for Native Americans, their culture, and their predicament. His works proclaim this attitude through a style and subject matter that is uniquely American.
