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Catlin the Artist Shooting Buffalos with Colt's Revolving Pistol

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Photography by Edward C. Robison III
Catlin the Artist Shooting Buffalos with Colt's Revolving Pistol
Photography by Edward C. Robison III

Catlin the Artist Shooting Buffalos with Colt's Revolving Pistol

Artist (1796 - 1872)
Dateca. 1855-1860
MediumHand-colored lithograph
Dimensions17 x 23 in. (43.2 x 58.4 cm)
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2014.2.2
Accession number 2014.2.2
On View
Not on view
Provenancecommissioned by Samuel Colt [1814-1862], Hartford, CT, ca. 1855-1860. (William Reese Company, New Haven, CT); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2014
Label TextGeorge Catlin appears at the center of this composition as a frontiersman hunter, outfitted in fringed buckskin attire and firing his Colt pistol at full gallop. In the background, Plains Indians use ancient weapons of bow and arrow and spear in their hunt. The message is clear. In this action-packed scene, Catlin conveys the superiority of the Colt repeating pistol, and at the same time, predicts the decline of the Indian way of life and the buffalo.
Markingsl.l.: G. Catlin Pinxt
l.r.: On Stone & Printed by J.M'Gahey, Bold Sqre Chester
l.c.: CATLIN THE ARTIST SHOOTING BUFFALOS WITH COLT'S REVOLVING PISTOL. / He writes, "I gave five shots to the right and left, four of which were fatal to the heart, and all in less than half a minute