Buffalo Bull Grazing--no.2
Medium
Graphic Arts-Print
Classification
Graphic Arts-Print
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
1985.66.386,599B
Tags
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *Buffalo Bull Grazingno. 2* captures the majestic wildlife of the American West, recurring theme in the artist's prolific body of work. As a pioneering 19th-century painter, Catlin (1796–1872) dedicated his career to documenting Native American cultures and the untamed landscapes of the Great Plains before they were forever altered by westward expansion. This graphic arts print, likely a reproduction of one of his on-site sketches or oil paintings, showcases a powerful buffalo bull in a serene grazing pose, evoking the vast, open prairies that defined frontier life. The artwor...
About the Artist
George Catlin · 1796–1872
George Catlin (1796–1872), born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Putnam Catlin and Polly Sutton—who had been captured by Native Americans during the 1778 Battle of Wyoming—initially pursued a legal career. Trained at Litchfield Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 1819 but abandoned law after two years to study art in Philadelphia in 1823. Self-taught as a portraitist, Catlin quickly gained ...