Game of the Arrow - Mandan
1861/1869
Medium
oil on card mounted on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 47.8 x 63.8 cm (18 13/16 x 25 1/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Paul Mellon Collection
Accession Number
1965.16.83
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *Game of the Arrow -an* (1861/1869) captures a vibrant moment in Mandan Native American life, showcasing a traditional archery game among members of this Upper Missouri River tribe. Painted in oil on card mounted onboard—a compact medium suggesting a study or later reflection from Catlin's vast archive—this 47.8 x 63.8 cm work now graces the National Gallery of Art's Paul Mellon Collection. Cat, a pioneering 19th-century artist and ethnographer, devoted much of his career to documenting Indigenous cultures of the American West before they were irrevocably altered by European-A...
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 ...