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North American Indians
by CATLIN, George (1796-1872)
- Used
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
New York, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: C. and J. Adlard for George Catlin, Egyptian Hall, 1844. Hand-coloured lithograph, on thick paper, after Catlin, drawn on stone by McGahey, printed by Day & Hague. Image size: 17 1/2 x 13 inches. Sheet size: 23 7/16 x 16 1/2 inches. A fine image from Catlin's 'North American Indian Portfolio', one of the most important accounts of Native American life.
Catlin here combines three distinct portraits for the introductory plate to his North American Indian Portfolio which otherwise details hunting scenes and other aspects of Indian life. As Catlin writes: "The group in Plate 1 is composed of three Portraits from my Collection, representing three different tribes of various latitudes, and well illustrating a number of the leading characteristics of this interesting part of the human family." All three figures, an Osage Warrior, an Iroquois, and a Pawnee woman, are shown in modes of dress and ornamentation for cool weather, exhibiting the characteristic differences of the various tribes. Catlin summarized the Indigenous peoples he encountered as "an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, - yet honourable, contemplative and religious beings." In a famous passage from the preface of his North American Indian Portfolio, Catlin describes how the sight of several tribal chiefs in Philadelphia led to his resolution to record their way of life. "The history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy of the lifetime of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian." From 1832 to 1837, Catlin spent the summer months sketching the tribes and then finished his pictures in oils during the winter. The record he left is unique, both in its breadth and in the sympathetic understanding that his images constantly demonstrate. A selection of the greatest of images from this record were published in the North American Indian Portfolio in an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible. The present image is one of the results of this publishing venture and is both a work of art of the highest quality and a fitting memorial to a vanished way of life.
Cf. William S. Reese, The Production of Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio, 1844-1876.
Catlin here combines three distinct portraits for the introductory plate to his North American Indian Portfolio which otherwise details hunting scenes and other aspects of Indian life. As Catlin writes: "The group in Plate 1 is composed of three Portraits from my Collection, representing three different tribes of various latitudes, and well illustrating a number of the leading characteristics of this interesting part of the human family." All three figures, an Osage Warrior, an Iroquois, and a Pawnee woman, are shown in modes of dress and ornamentation for cool weather, exhibiting the characteristic differences of the various tribes. Catlin summarized the Indigenous peoples he encountered as "an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless, - yet honourable, contemplative and religious beings." In a famous passage from the preface of his North American Indian Portfolio, Catlin describes how the sight of several tribal chiefs in Philadelphia led to his resolution to record their way of life. "The history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy of the lifetime of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian." From 1832 to 1837, Catlin spent the summer months sketching the tribes and then finished his pictures in oils during the winter. The record he left is unique, both in its breadth and in the sympathetic understanding that his images constantly demonstrate. A selection of the greatest of images from this record were published in the North American Indian Portfolio in an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible. The present image is one of the results of this publishing venture and is both a work of art of the highest quality and a fitting memorial to a vanished way of life.
Cf. William S. Reese, The Production of Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio, 1844-1876.
Synopsis
From 1831 to 1837, George Catlin traveled extensively among the native peoples of North America—from the Muskogee and Miccosukee Creeks of the Southeast to the Lakota, Mandan, and Pawnee of the West, and from the Winnebagos and Menominees of the North to the Comanches of eastern Texas. Studying their habits, customs, and modes of life, he made copious notes and numerous sketches of ceremonies, buffalo hunts, symbols, and totems. Catlin’s unprecedented fieldwork culminated in more than five hundred oil paintings and his now-legendary journals, which, as Peter Matthiessen writes in his introduction, “taken together... constitute the first, last, and only ‘complete’ record of the Plains Indians ever made at the height of their splendid culture, so soon destroyed by traders’ liquor and disease, rapine and bayonets.” A one-volume edition of Catlin's journals Illustrated with more than fifty reproductions of Catlin's incomparable paintings
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Details
- Seller
- Donald Heald Rare Books
(US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 20143
- Title
- North American Indians
- Author
- CATLIN, George (1796-1872)
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- C. and J. Adlard for George Catlin, Egyptian Hall
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1844
- Bookseller catalogs
- Native Americans;
Terms of Sale
Donald Heald Rare Books
All items are guaranteed as described. Any purchase may be returned for a full refund within 10 working days as long as it is returned in the same condition and is packed and shipped correctly.
About the Seller
Donald Heald Rare Books
Biblio member since 2006
New York, New York
About Donald Heald Rare Books
Donald Heald Rare Books, Prints, and Maps offers the finest examples of antiquarian books and prints in the areas of botany, ornithology, natural history, Americana and Canadiana, Native American, voyage and travel, maps and atlases, photography, and more. We are open by appointment only.
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