Artwork
Gathering Wild Rice - Winnebago
Gathering Wild Rice - Winnebago 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, *Gathering Wild Rice – Winnebago* is an oil painting executed on a card that has been mounted onto paperboard.
About this work
Overview
The composition is modest in scale but offers a clear window into the daily activities of the tribe during the mid‑nineteenth century.
Created in 1865, *Gathering Wild Rice – Winnebago* is an oil painting executed on a card that has been mounted onto paperboard. The work portrays a group of Winnebago individuals collecting wild rice beside a solitary tree, capturing a moment of ordinary labor rather than a staged tableau. The composition is modest in scale but offers a clear window into the daily activities of the tribe during the mid‑nineteenth century.
Subject & Meaning
The scene focuses on communal harvest, emphasizing cooperation among the participants as they bend over the water’s edge to gather the grain. By choosing this quiet episode, the artist highlights the rhythm of subsistence life and the intimate relationship between the Winnebago people and the natural resources of their environment, rather than dramatizing conflict or ceremony.
Technique & Style
Rendered in oil on a relatively small support, the painting employs a restrained palette and loose brushwork that suggest movement without excessive detail. The tree framing the figures serves as a compositional anchor, while the muted tones convey the cool, early‑morning atmosphere typical of rice‑gathering periods. The handling reflects the artist’s broader practice of quick, on‑site studies.
History & Provenance
The work was produced by George Catlin, a lawyer‑turned‑artist who spent the 1830s traveling across the American frontier, documenting the customs of Plains tribes through portraiture and genre scenes. Although best known for his extensive lithographic publications and earlier topographical engravings of the Erie Canal, this painting forms part of his later series that sought to preserve visual records of Indigenous life before its disruption.
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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