George Catlin
After a brief stint as a lawyer, George Catlin devoted himself entirely to easel painting upon his move to Philadelphia in 1823. There he studied under Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) and Thomas Sully (1783-1872), both highly acclaimed portraitists.
In 1824, Catlin witnessed a delegation of American Indians in Washington, D.C., and was fascinated by their appearance and culture. Knowing the federal government was in the process of relocating the Indians from their native lands or forcing them to acculturate, Catlin resolved to use his art "in rescuing from oblivion the looks and customs of the vanishing races of native man in America." Between 1832 and 1836, he made a series of trips into Indian territory up the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers resulting in over 600 paintings of Indian portraits, landscapes, ceremonies, and daily rituals. Catlin titled the collection his "Indian Gallery" which was exhibited in major cities on the East Coast. He campaigned for its acquisition by the United States government in hopes that it would become the nucleus of a National Museum of American Indians. Congress continually refused to supply funds for its acquisition.
In an effort to find a buyer, Catlin traveled the "Indian Gallery" to Europe in 1839. The display became something of an extravaganza with not only his paintings, but artifacts and performing Indians as well. The show was not financially successful, and creditors seized the collection in 1852. However, the "Gallery" remained in tact thanks to Joseph Harrison of Philadelphia, who paid off the majority of the debt, took possession of the collection, and shipped it back to Pennsylvania.
After his business failure and a short stint in debtors' prison, Catlin spent eight years traveling to South America, painting more Indians and landscapes. He then returned to Europe and lived in Brussels for ten years, producing three hundred new works of his travels and recreating three hundred images from his lost collection.
After more than thirty years abroad, Catlin returned to New York in 1870 and passed away two years later. In 1881, the original "Indian Gallery" finally made its way to the Smithsonian Institution as a donation from Joseph Harrison's widow. Although many of the works were damaged from being stored in a boiler room, about 450 of the paintings survived and were restored. Largely unappreciated during his lifetime, Catlin's work now stands as an accomplished historical record of this nation's early inhabitants.
