Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 2010
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 30:3 (Spring 2010).
Abstract
All these years later, after several biographies, numbers of exhibitions, and various conference symposia, George Catlin remains an irresistible figure. He was born in 1796 and died in 1872 and in between became one of the best known artists, writers, and showmen of the era. After casting about a bit in his young adulthood, Catlin found his calling out West where in the 1830s he took several trips into what was then Indian country to paint the people and lives he encountered. He produced dozens and dozens of canvasses, many of which now stand as iconic.
John Hausdoerffer hasn't given us another Catlin biography precisely, but rather traces the arc of Catlin's career by offering "five main 'snapshots'" intended to illustrate Hausdoerffer's main concern: Catlin's "ethics." We begin the slide show in Philadelphia, where Catlin discovered Peale's Museum and where Catlin had his "epiphany"; the second snapshot focuses on Catlin's presentation of his work to American audiences; we then journey out West to examine what Hausdoerffer calls "Catlin's gaze"; next we are off to Europe where he took his paintings, his artifacts, and a significant number of Native people to exhibit after American audiences grew bored with him; we end finally at Yellowstone National Park, created in the year Catlin died, because Catlin is credited with first proposing the idea of national parks back in 1832.
Comments
Copyright © 2010 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.