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Indian Encampment

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Photography by Dwight Primiano
Indian Encampment
Photography by Dwight Primiano

Indian Encampment

Artist (1796 - 1872)
Dateca. 1852-1859
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions19 x 26 1/2 in. (48.3 x 67.3 cm)
Framed: 33 1/8 × 40 5/8 × 4 3/4 in.
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2007.222
Signedl.r., in brown paint: G. Catlin
Accession number 2007.222
On View
On view
Provenancepurchased from the Artist by Leopold I [1790-1865], King of Belgium, 1859; purchased by Richard Smithill, Rockbeare, Hants, England; (Mr. H. Williams, New York, NY), 1907; Sir Edmund Boyd Osler [1845-1924], Toronto, Canada; given to Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada; Lee Pritzer (or Pritzker?), Toronto, Canada; (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY); purchased by Pierre Bergé, New York, NY; to (Sotheby's, New York, NY), December 1, 2004, sale N08032, lot 135; purchased by Private Collection, Southern United States; to (Christie's, New York, NY), November 29, 2007, sale 1911, lot 104; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2007
Label TextGeorge Catlin completed this painting following travels in South America in the mid-1850s. The setting of the palm trees and lush greenery signal a tropical landscape, but the everyday scene recalls the many paintings Catlin completed of North American Plains Indian peoples decades earlier. Though based on first-hand experience and sketches of South America, Catlin was mindful of his white audience and created an idealistic vision of Indigenous life.

George Catlin completó este cuadro tras viajar por Sudamérica a mediados de la década de 1850. El entorno de palmeras y vegetación exuberante sugiere un paisaje tropical, pero la escena cotidiana recuerda los muchos cuadros que Catlin realizó de los pueblos indígenas de las Grandes Llanuras de Norteamérica décadas antes. Aunque se basaba en experiencias de primera mano y en bocetos de Sudamérica, Catlin era consciente de que su público era blanco, por lo que creó una visión idealizada de la vida indígena.