Deer Hunting by Torchlight in Bark Canoes
1846-1848
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Accession Number
1985.66.554
Tags
About this artwork
George Catlin looked back nostalgically on his western adventures years after his final journey to the frontier. âIn these delightful amusements,â he wrote, âand with these pleasing companions, I have been for a while participating with great satisfaction; I have joined several times in the deer-hunts . . .â (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 33, 1841; reprint 1973)
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 ...