Four Dancers
1843-1844
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
1985.66.386,439
Tags
About this artwork
George Catlinâs Indian Gallery did well on tour in London and other British cities, but inevitably its novelty wore off. To rekindle interest, Catlin added a new attraction in 1844, of nine Ojibwe from Canada who danced, sang, and âscalpedâ enemies, to the delight of the crowd. Not everyone was charmed, however, and Charles Dickens dismissed the group as a âparty of Indians squatting and spitting . . . or dancing their miserable jigs after their own dreary manner.â
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 ...