He was the first and perhaps the most famous painter of North American Native-Americans. Catlin was one of few Americans to accept Native American culture on its own terms rather than on European terms. Both Catlin's mother and grandmother had been kidnapped by Native Americans. Catlin began as a lawyer, but turned to portrait painting as his first love. However when he encountered a group of Far West Native American braves, he resolved to paint and study Native American culture. So he began an epic journey through the Midwest and the west from 1829 to 1838, traveling across the frontier and living among some 48 separate tribes while he painted their portraits, over six hundred, in fact. He published plates of these paintings along with a fairly thorough documentation of what he encountered in 1842 in Notes and Letters on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians. .
Agreeing to his father's wishes, he decided to study law in Litchfield, Connecticut, but at the same time established a more fine arts career, as a painter of portrait miniatures. After passing the bar exam in Connecticut, Catlin returned home to Pennsylvania, where he practiced law with his older brother for three years. During this time, he gradually resolved to convert over to painting, as his future. .
By 1821 the young artist had moved to Philadelphia, where he exhibited some early work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Catlin remained in the city for approximately four years and took some formal art study during this period, but little information exists regarding his early training. He certainly knew the work of the Philadelphia portraist Thomas Sully, and he became close friends with Sully's future son-in-law, John Neagle, a fellow artist at the Academy. In addition to painting portrait miniatures in Philadelphia, Catlin received several out-of- town approvals. He was invited to Albany to paint DeWitt Clinton, the governor of New York, in 1824 and the following year he was hired to create a series of lithographs depicting construction sites along the Erie Canal.
In the words of author George Catlin from his book Native American Indians, "that he witnessed Indians" sincerity of worship and he had never seen any other people who spend so much of their lives in worshipping The Great Spirit" (473). ...
The City of Boston Boston is the capital and largest city of Massachusetts. It was established in 1630 by John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Company. No city in the United States is as blessed as Boston when it comes to historical sites. All of the sites that I will describe to you are a p...
In 1984 the International Olympic Committee, the NCAA and the American College of Sports Medicine ruled, "Any blood doping procedure used in an attempt to improve athletic performance is unethical, unfair, and exposes the athlete to unwarranted and potentially serious health risks (Catlin, 1996, 231)." ...
Drugs and Sports It is an ethical question whether or not athletes should take drugs to enhance their performance in sports today. While athletes who take drugs to enhance their performance find them to be beneficial, the drugs they are taking can actually be very dangerous to their health. The ...
Art for Politics Sake: Art Censorship in Communist China, And The United States We want one single, grand lie which will be believed by everybody - including the rulers, ideally, but failing that the rest of the city -Plato from his Republic Today if an average American was asked if he or she believed that censorship was an important part of the perfect state, they would not only answer "no" but they would say that the perfect state must have no form of censorship in order for it's people to be happy. The average person believes also, that any true philosopher would a...
In nineteenth century, there appeared many great names in the art world of America such as George Catlin, George Healy, and Mary Cassatt. Among that, William Morris Hunt emerged as one of the most important American artists of the second half of the century, bringing a new influence and art to Ameri...
Of Mice and Men is a novel of hopes and dreams that get broken or shattered. John Steinbeck presents the novel in a theme of broken dreams and a since of hopelessness. This is evident from start to finish in the novel. The theme is kept strong by having all the characters wanting to have hope for so...
In Educational Experiences of Children in Out-of-Home Care, Smithgall, Gladden, Howard, Goerge and Courtney (2004) state, "It appears that the major source of miscommunication is that everybody has a different perspective about who is responsible for communicating what to whom" (p. 36). ...
