George Catlin (1796-1872)
George Catlin was born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in 1796. He was the first American artist of stature to visit and depict the Plains Indians on his own and spent about eight years (1824 to 1836) traveling among the 48 North American Indian Tribes, including tribes in Alaska. His sketches and paintings are the first and most important record of land west of the Mississippi River before white settlement. His goal was to preserve, on canvas, these vanishing peoples.
The 500 paintings he produced traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe, and, in 1844, were published as his North American Indian Portfolio. Caitlin also recorded Indians in South America,when he toured there from 1852 to 1857, having lost his collection of North American paintings to creditors.
Information courtesy of Manitou Galleries/Manitou Auctions, March in Montana Catalogue March, 2007