Landscape Background

About this artwork

“The landscape scenes of these wild and beautiful regions, are, of themselves, a rich reward for the traveler.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 37, 1841; reprint 1973)

Art Historical Context

George Catlin's *Landscape Background* (1846-1848), a captivating painting from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, evokes the untamed beauty of the American West. As a pioneering 19th-century artist, Catlin traveled extensively through frontier territories in the 1830s, documenting Native American life and the dramatic landscapes that framed it. This work, gifted by Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., captures the essence of those "wild and beautiful regions" Catlin so passionately described in his *Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians* (1841): “The landscape scenes... are, of themselves, a rich reward for the traveler.” Though the medium is unknown, the painting exemplifies Catlin's Romantic style, blending keen observation with a sense of awe for America's vanishing wilderness. Created later in his career—possibly during his European exhibitions—it served as a backdrop to highlight the cultural richness of indigenous peoples amid sweeping vistas of mountains, plains, and rivers. These Western landscapes were not mere scenery but vital narratives, underscoring the urgency of preservation before westward expansion altered them forever. Today, in the Smithsonian Collection, *Landscape Background* reminds visitors of Catlin's legacy as a visual chronicler of a formative era, inviting us to appreciate the artistry and historical depth of the American frontier.

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 ...