Curious Grassy Bluffs, St. Peter's River
1861/1869
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 37.5 x 56.3 cm (14 3/4 x 22 3/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Paul Mellon Collection
Accession Number
1965.16.190
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *Curious Grassy Bl, St. Peter's River* (1861/1869) captures the rugged beauty of the American Midwest in this intimate oil on canvas landscape, measuring 37.5 x 56.3 cm. Painted late in Catlin's career, it depicts the dramatic grassy bluffs along the St. Peter's River (now the Minnesota River), a region central to early 19th-century frontier exploration. Catlin, a pioneering artist known for his documentary-style portraits of Native American life, here shifts focus to the untamed natural environment that framed those cultures. As a key figure in American Romanticism, Catlin tr...
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 ...