George Catlin (1796-1872)
Catlin was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He initially studied law but abandoned it for painting. Although he had no formal training he did have an inherent talent. After seeing a group of visiting chieftains at the Charles Wilson Peale Museum in Philadelphia during the 1820s, he decided to portray Native Americans as his life work. By 1840 he had visited 48 different tribes, painted 310 portraits including 200 other paintings.

In 1832, he was the first artist to paint the Missouri River as far away as Fort Union at the junction of the Yellowstone and the Missouri. His paintings were often great panorama views that included human (Indian) and animal life along the river. With his famous Indian Gallery, he also put the Missouri River and its vast surroundings on view for the first time in England and France where many people had never seen a steamboat before.

Catlin died in 1872 and his most important paintings can be found at the Smithsonian Institution.

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