Brinton Museum Exhibit Features George Catlin

“George Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio and Native Voices Today”, is currently on display at the Brinton Museum.

Born in 1796 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, George Catlin was an accomplished American painter, author and explorer who is credited as being the first great artist to travel widely among the North American Plains Indians to document in art the life and culture of the Indian peoples.

The Catlin show opened on Friday, September 6 with a Fall into Art program. Curator Barb McNab, Curator of Exhibitions at the Brinton, introduced the exhibit with a slideshow of some of the artwork.

The exhibit features twenty-five original, first edition, hand-colored lithographed plates published in 1844. These lithographs were based on paintings of Plains Indian tribes that Catlin observed and painted during his trip along the Missouri, including Crow, Cheyenne, Lakota and Mandan people.

Subjects of the lithographs include hunting buffalo, capturing wild horses, taking part in ceremonial dances and spirited sporting events. One game was very similar to modern day lacrosse, and the equipment the Indians had was almost identical to the equipment used today.

Catlin traveled with William Clark, who was at the time the Superintendent of Indian affairs. Catlin made several trips into Indian territory, and his paintings and commentary gives us a glimpse of the Indian’s life before the Indian wars and the aftermath when the Indians were confined to the reservations.

McNab stressed that this was only a glimpse of the Indians’ way of life, “You cannot cover a scope or subject that large through just artistic endeavors. It is the Readers’ Digest version,” she said.

One scene McNab pointed out on the slideshow showed a buffalo turning the tables and chasing the hunter.

He not only did artwork, but he wrote about the events as well. One plate shows an Indian roping a wild horse. Catlin wrote a description of what he saw.

The warrior then dismounts his own horse and is drug along by the wild horse until the horse drops from exhaustion. He then hobbles the horse and makes a halter around the horse’s lower jaw. The Indian leans back upon the halter, and gradually advances toward the horse, until the horse allows his new master to touch him. He then mounts the horse and rides it to submission.

Curatorial Director Jochen Wierich talked about the other side of Catlin, and how the portfolio fits in with his larger body of work.

He added that Catlin was a showman, and he wanted to promote his artwork. In 1838, Catlin tried to sell his Indian Gallery to Congress in May of 1838, but he was rejected. He felt he could do better in Europe, so in 1839 he went to England, and was successful making money for a time, and in 1845, he when to Paris. After staying in Europe for a time, in 1871 he returned to the United States.

Today, Catlin is known as one of the foremost painters of the Native Americans.

Horse by Rhonda Holy Bear

The Brinton Museum will be displaying the Catlin images alongside American Indian objects selected and interpreted by its American Indian Advisory Council members.

This exhibit is made possible through funding from the Edwin T. Meredith Foundation, The Tucker Foundation, and Wyoming Arts Council and continues in the S. K. Johnston, Jr. Family Gallery through October 20.

A large crowd attended the event.