Goodbye and Hello to George Catlin

After hanging for more than five years in the Renwick's Grand Salon, the 300 or so George Catlins (as well as the Thomas Morans) have come down to make room for a new installation from the museum's permanent collection. I ran to see them a few days before the exhibition closed and heard curator George Gurney talk about Catlin and his work. I found myself looking at the paintings more closely this time and found more meaning in them than I had in the past. Drawing parallels between the Renwick installation and George Catlin's original hanging of his works—paintings stacked one atop another in the salon style—Gurney said, "This is the way it was, and you're not going to find it in any other place."

Catlin wanted to show the manners and customs of American Indians of the Great Plains, so he made five trips to document them between 1830 and 1836. In his lifetime, he painted individual portraits, lifeways, and landscapes of about fifty tribes. When you put it all together it’s quite a sweeping view of cultures that were already being challenged to adapt to white encroachment.

Catlin started out as a lawyer, but painting Native Americans became his passion. To fund his trips out West, where he painted on-site, Catlin would write articles and sell copies of his paintings. "He had a dream and he did it," Gurney told us. Catlin toured his collection of paintings—the Indian Gallery—across Europe and included Indian performers in his live shows. According to Gurney, when he didn't have Indians, he hired a number of Englishmen and put them in Indian paint. When Catlin later fell on hard times, his debts were paid off by Joseph Harrison of Philadelphia in exchange for the collection. Harrison's widow gave the paintings to the Smithsonian, "something Catlin had always wanted," added Gurney.

Have no fear, however, about getting your Catlin fill. Although the Grand Salon was hung "Catlin style" and gave you a unique look into his quest, there are at least one hundred Catlins on view at the American Art Museum on the second floor and the Luce Foundation Center for American Art on the third floor. You can also see our online exhibition and check out the catalogue George Catlin and His Indian Gallery and video Frontier Visionary: George Catlin and Plains Indians in the online shop.

Here's a preview of the new installation in the Grand Salon that opens June 6.