Buffalo Chase, with Accidents

Catlin applied oil paint to a relatively small card surface, using a limited palette of browns, greens, and a vivid blue sky. The brushwork conveys movement, with loose strokes suggesting the dust and motion of the chase. The straightforward, observational approach aligns with mid‑nineteenth‑century realist tendencies to depict everyday scenes without idealization.

George Catlin, originally trained as a lawyer, undertook five expeditions to the western frontier in the 1830s, documenting Indigenous life through portraiture and genre scenes. This particular work forms part of his extensive visual record of Plains tribes, produced after his return east. The painting has remained in private collections before entering its current institutional holding.