SOUVENIR OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS

Catlin, George

Graphite/Paper

1852

Gift of the Montana Power Company

X1969.62.01

Traveling the Upper Missouri River in the 1830s, George Catlin (1796-1872) was among the first artists of note to paint the portraits and ceremonies of the region's Native American tribes. When he returned from the West, Catlin spent years promoting the artwork he had produced on his journey and transforming drawings and field sketches into finished works of art. In 1852, while visiting London, he assembled an Album Unique of original graphite drawings, inscribing the title page: "From amongst these tribes I have brought home a very extensive collection of portraits and other paintings taken from life and from which the following selection of portraits has been made by myself and copied with great care by my own hand." These figures are three of one-hundred-thirty-five that he drew for this album.