Published by National Portrait Gallery. Text by Stephanie Pratt, Joan Carpenter Troccoli.
This book showcases works from George Catlin's (1796-1872) Indian Gallery, repositioning this remarkable artist for a contemporary audience. The authors explore the origins of Catlin's achievement: his ambition to record what he believed to be dying cultures, and his collecting activities, educational intentions and methods of exhibition and display, which demonstrate the growth of a new sensibility towards native peoples. Stephanie Pratt provides an overview of the important historical events affecting native Americans in the 1820s and 1830s, while Joan Carpenter Troccoli examines the life and art of Catlin from the 1820s through the period of his European tours of the 1840s and 1850s. The book also includes an examination of the creation and reception of the Indian Gallery. Reproductions of pages from Catlin's sketchbooks and ephemera demonstrate how the Indian Gallery was toured overseas, and some of the items Catlin collected in the field.
