Artwork
Catlin and Two Companions Shooting Buffalo
Catlin and Two Companions Shooting Buffalo is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist George Catlin. It dates from 1865 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Created in 1865, this oil painting on card, later affixed to paperboard, captures a dynamic hunting episode on the Great Plains.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1865, this oil painting on card, later affixed to paperboard, captures a dynamic hunting episode on the Great Plains. Three mounted riders fire at a herd of buffalo amid a sparse landscape dotted with a few trees, conveying the urgency and movement of the chase.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on three horsemen engaged in buffalo hunting, a common subsistence activity for many Plains peoples. While the figures are European-American, the work reflects Catlin’s broader aim to record the interactions between settlers and Indigenous hunting practices, illustrating a moment of frontier tension.
Technique & Style
Catlin employed oil on a relatively small card support, a material choice that allowed rapid execution during travel. The brushwork is brisk, emphasizing motion through blurred forms and a limited palette of earth tones, while the mounted figures are rendered with more defined detail to draw viewer focus.
History & Provenance
George Catlin, originally trained as a lawyer, turned to painting as a means of preserving Native American cultures. After five expeditions into the western territories during the 1830s, he produced numerous works documenting Plains life; this 1865 piece belongs to the later phase of his career, when he revisited earlier sketches for studio completion.
Context
The scene reflects the mid‑nineteenth‑century reality of buffalo hunts that were both a cultural staple for Indigenous groups and a target of commercial exploitation. Catlin’s depiction aligns with his extensive visual record of the Plains, offering contemporary viewers insight into the ecological and social transformations of the era.
Artist & collection
Artist
George Catlin ( KAT-lin; July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the American frontier.
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