Buffalo Hunt under the Wolf-skin Mask

About this artwork

“The poor buffaloes have their enemy man, besetting and besieging them at all times of the year, and in all the modes that man in his superior wisdom has been able to devise for their destruction. They struggle in vain to evade his deadly shafts, when he dashes amongst them over the plains on his wild horse---they plunge into the snow-drifts where they yield themselves an easy prey to their destroyers, and they also stand unwittingly and behold him, unsuspected under the skin of a white wolf, in...

Art Historical Context

George Catlin's *Buffalo Hunt under the-skin Mask* (1832–1833) captures a thrilling moment from his travels along the Upper Missouri River in1832, where he sketched Native American life amid the vast American West. As a pioneering artist and ethnographer, Catlin dedicated his career to documenting Plains Indian cultures before they were transformed by European settlement. This oil painting exemplifies his realistic style, blending keen observation with dramatic narrative to immerse viewers in frontier realities. The scene depicts a cunning hunter—likely a Native American warrior—disguised in ...

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 ...