Existing comment:
George Catlin
Bull Dance, Mandan O-kee-pa Ceremony
1832
oil on canvas
Buffalo-Hunt under the Wolf-Skin Mask
1832–33
oil on canvas
In 1855 Catlin returned to Berlin and met again with Humboldt. Humboldt arranged for King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to see the American artist's work and for Catlin to paint replicas of ten of his paintings for the Prussian king's art collection. The selection of paintings Humboldt commissioned for the royal collection were either vignettes of tribal groups or genre scenes copied from works Catlin had made during and after his trips among the native communities during the 1830s. Two of the originals copied for the Prussian king are on view here, including Buffalo Hunt under the Wolf-Skin Mask, a demonstration of a clever hunting practice designed to use the wolf scent to mask that of human hunters.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison Jr., 1985.66.505, .414 |