When considering the authenticity of Catlin's portraits, there is little question that he painted
what he saw with a sincere desire to record a vanishing race.  That he romanticized them
is unquestionable, writing as he did in 1829 that "among the savage Indian" he could benefit
from the "finest school for an Historical painter...he could select and study from the finest
models in Nature, unmasked and moving in all their grace and beauty."  Catlin also
confirmed that "no part of the human family furnish[es] more picturesque subjects
for the painter's brush than the North American Indian."

But here is where the irony of his works comes into play. In consciously selecting to paint
their picturesqueness, he also ignored the very conditions he lamented were destroying their race. In 1844 he recorded that of the North American Indians "one half at least...has been
already entirely depopulated...millions have already sunk under dissipation and disease which have been carried by civilized man."  While not visually confronting these situations that threatened their extinction, Catlin implied it through his methodical isolation of select tribal members to be viewed like rare specimens under glass on exhibit in his traveling picture gallery.

Notice, however, the visual comments he made in this painting.  What effects do the "benefits" of civilization have on this "noble savage?"
 

Return to the ARTI/MC Homepage
Return to the ARTI/MCPS Homepage

Return to the TAH/MC Homepage
Return to the TAH/MCPS Homepage