4. • George Catlin (1796-1872) journeyed west five times in
the 1830s to paint the Plains Indians and their way of
life.
• Catlin was the first artist to record the Plains Indians in
their own territories. He admired them.
• When Catlin first traveled west in 1830, the United
States Congress had just passed the Indian Removal
Act, requiring Indians in the Southeast to resettle west of
the Mississippi River. This vast forced migration—as well
as smallpox epidemics and continuing incursions from
trappers, miners, explorers, and settlers—created
pressures on Indian cultures to adapt or perish.
• Today Catlin's Indian Gallery is recognized as a great
cultural treasure, offering rare insight into native cultures
and a crucial chapter in American history.
5. • George Catlin is best known as a painter of the American Indians.
After seeing a delegation of Plains Indians in Philadelphia, he
decided to dedicate his life to recording the lives and customs of
Native Americans. Soon after completing law school, Catlin became
a professional artist. He traveled extensively throughout North
America in the 1830s and he visited South America in the 1850s,
painting hundreds of Indians and keeping detailed records of his
journeys.
• The National Gallery has more than 350 paintings by
Catlin. Following his extensive travels, Catlin put his paintings on
view in an exhibition he called The Indian Gallery.
•
6. • When explorers started their journey from the Eastern United States to discover the Western
United States, they encountered Native American cultures and communities and wildlife they may
have never imagined.
They encountered various Native American groups such as the Lakota Sioux and Blackfoot, the
Comanches of the Western plains and mountains, and the Apaches, Navajo, Pueblo tribes of the
American desert Southwest, to the groups of Pacific Northwest tribes such as the Bella Coola,
the Haida, and the Kwakiuts. Most of the time, their encounters were friendly... although many
times misunderstandings caused later conflict.
The explorers also encountered the numerous critters of the Wild West--grizzley bears,
wolverines, timber wolves, antelope, moose, elk, deer, skunks, porcupines, great horned owls,
flying squirrels, bald eagles, turkey vultures, and other critters.
In those days, photography wasn't yet well developed (sorry... bad pun)... so those in their
exploratory groups who had any art skills wound up drawing a lot of what they saw in their
journals. Some of these artsts came to more fame because their art was so realistic and
dramatic. And many more modern artists came into the field to further this capture of images from
the wild west.
This Squidoo lens explores some of these artists and provides links and resources to more
information on these amazing folks.
7. • Lesson 8Art History:Thomas Cole, 1801-1848, A View of the Mountain Pass (NGA
)Project:Study the way artists make things look far away — perspective, color, detail, size. Draw
a mountain scene and either paint it or use oil pastels.
Lesson 9Art History:Albert Bierstadt, 1830-1902, Lake Lucerne (NGA)Project:Draw landscapes
focusing on skies showing different types of weather. (First look for paintings showing a variety of
skies.)
Lesson 10Art History:George Catlin, 1796-1872, The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas(
NGA)Project:Make sand paintings using Indian designs. (Draw design on posterboard, paint in
with glue, sprinkle colored sand on.)or: make a buffalo mask. Cut a piece of brown cardboard
into the general shape of a buffalo head, cut holes for the eyes and glue curled strips of brown
paper to it.
Lesson 11Art History:Winslow Homer, 1836-1910, Cracking the Whip (
Butler Institute of Art, Youngstown, Ohio)Project:Draw children at school or play.or: do the
"Wilderness Watercolor" project as suggested in Discovering Great Artists.
Lesson 12Art History:Charles Marion Russell, 1864-1926, Crippled But Still Coming (Amon
Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth)Project:Do a living tableau or draw or paint pictures
that tell an exciting story.or: practice drawing horses.or: do the "Western Sunset" project in
Discovering Great Artists. Think of a logo that you could use to sign your paintings. Russell used
a buffalo head. Russell's paintings also lend themselves very well to creative writing assignments
— tell the story behind the painting.
Lesson 13Art History:Frederick Remington, 1861-1900, A Dash for Timber (Amon
Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth)Project:Make an action sculpture of an animal, use
24 gauge wire or Sculpey clay.
8. • Frederic Remington - A Romantic?
•
• I always begin each artist discussion by writing the artist’s name on the blackboard along with the
dates that he lived so the kids get familiar with seeing his name and a sense of the time we are
going to talk about. This month we are teaching the kids about Frederic Remington. How I begin
the lecture is by telling them that he was an illustrator just like Edward Hopper (who they learned
about last month). I go to the blackboard and draw a picture of the shape of the USA. I explain to
them that we live on the east coast of the US. I remind them about how the people got to the US
by sailing on boats from England across the Atlantic ocean.
• This leads to the topic of construction. I explain that here people settled and built banks, schools,
and libraries. I point to the map of the US and explain there was still the whole west that was
undeveloped. In the lecture that you have for class-it defines what “wild west” means.
• I ask the kids if they know what the word “romantic” means and of course they giggle. I tell them,
guess what Frederic Remington was called a romantic. Romantic means when you remember
something in the past. Many times you hear people say “the good old days”- they make it out to
be better than it was-well that was exactly what Frederic Remington did.
• He made the “wild west” appear to be exciting and adventurous. Look how masculine they men
look and how muscular the horses are in the painting above. –that’s what I mean when I say he
was romantic in the way he painted them.
• In fact, he didn’t have an easel and stand there in the dirt painting them. He was back on the east
coast painting in the studio. What’s more he was living during the time of industrialization (make
the kids say that word!) when they were building railroads in the west and towns were bustling.
The “wild west” was he painted it was a thing of the past which is why he is called a romantic.
