Indians: 9 Male and Female Torsos; 9 Head, Profiles--no. 28
Medium
Graphic Arts-Print
Classification
Graphic Arts-Print
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
1985.66.386,590W
Tags
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *Indians: 9 Male and Female Torsos 9 Head, Profiles. 28* is a captivating graphic arts print that showcases the artist's keen eye for Native American portraiture. This undated work features nine detailed torsos of male and female figures, alongside nine profile heads, rendered from head to waist length. The composition evokes a sense of intimate observation, with tags noting elements like smoking, suggesting everyday cultural moments amid a figure group. Catlin, a pioneering 19th-century American artist, traveled extensively through the Great Plains in the 1830s, creating over...
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 ...