George Catlin

George Catlin ( born July 26, 1796 in Wilkes -Barre, Pennsylvania, † December 23, 1872 in Jersey City, New Jersey ) was an American painter, author and Indian connoisseurs.

Life and work

Already in childhood Catlins Indians had a strong influence on him, his mother and grandmother were a short time before he was born of an Indian tribe kidnapped (Wyoming Massacre 1778), he collected American Indian objects.

Catlin was a lawyer, gave up his practice, however, after two years, 1823, he was 1824-1829 portrait painter in Philadelphia and then in New York. In 1824 he was admitted due to the great success of his work in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

In 1830 he went into the still partially unexplored west, to St. Louis and the Missouri and devoted his time and effort the Great Plains Indians. His motives are the personalities of the Indians, their society and their customs and also the landscape. In 1837 he exhibited his works in New York for the first time to the wider public, 1839, the exhibition went to Europe, where he showed it first in London. He also organized events where Native American rituals, first of whites, and later by real Indians ( Ojibwa and Iowa) were demonstrated. In 1845 he showed the shows in Paris.

By observing the indigenous peoples Catlin was also an Indian expert and advocate their cause. 1841 Catlin published " Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians " (Eng.: customs, habits and living conditions of the North American Indians) in two volumes with over 300 stitches, which would become his most famous work. In the absence of support in America, he had to have it printed at his own expense in London his work.

Catlin drew many everyday occurrences of the Indians, as well as rituals, festivals and portraits. He also made " custom " Indians in cartoons ridiculous, in which he would fully represented as Indians and ridicule in another picture in seemingly "dignified" European clothing. These pictures are from his entire creative life and he takes a clear position for the Indians in their originality, but mocks those chiefs and other dignitaries, carrying for his opinion upon improper European clothes and get dressed up as the " whiteness". In his drawings, they act as rather grotesque.

He was companion of the American pioneer George Rogers Clark.

1852 Catlin traveled also to Central and South America, later to Kamchatka, during his travels he portrayed the indigenous peoples.

During the 1860s, Catlin lived in Brussels, where he painted another 600 portraits have emerged after his sketches from the 1830s. After 32 years of living in Europe, he returned to America in 1871.

Catlin's Indian portraits found in his lifetime in the United States with little approval, more applauded his work in Europe.

Today the works Catlins regarded as unique expressions of the "true " American Indian life before the influence of the white colonists destroyed the culture of the locals.

The majority of his works is in the Catlin Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC issued, about 700 drawings are in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Publications

• The North American Indians. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1979