The Handsome Dance - Goo-a-give
1854/1869
Medium
oil on card mounted on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 45.8 x 62.5 cm (18 1/16 x 24 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Paul Mellon Collection
Accession Number
1965.16.256
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
George Catlin’s “The Handsome Dance – Goo-a-give” captures a lively ceremonial moment among Native American dancers. Catlin, an American artist and ethnographer, devoted much of his career to recording the appearances, customs, and rituals of Indigenous peoples across the Great Plains and beyond. Painted between 1854 and 1869, the work belongs to the later phase of his Indian Gallery project, when he revisited earlier field sketches to create finished studio pieces for Eastern and European audiences. The medium—oil on card mounted on paperboard—allowed Catlin both portability during his trave...
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 ...