Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian CollectionCatlin, George
History
Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection
Catlin, George
England -- Description and travel; France -- Description and travel; Indians of North America
_Catlin's Indian Gallery._--I visited this collection with expectations
very highly excited by the strong and renewed expressions of admiration
which it had received from the press in New York and Boston; but my
anticipations had fallen below the reality in degree as much as they
had differed from it in kind. I had supposed that it was merely an
assemblage of the portraits of distinguished Indian chieftains, instead
of being, as we find that it is, a very complete and curious tableau
of the life and habits of the strange and interesting races which once
inhabited the soil we now possess. Mr. Catlin's advertisement does no
justice to the character of his collection. He does not state himself.
He is a person of lofty genius and disinterested ambition, and he has
abhorred to tarnish the purity of his self-respect by even claiming his
own.
Mr. Catlin spent eight years in the most intimate intercourse with the
tribes which occupy the territory lying 2000 miles above St. Louis.
His only purpose in visiting these remote and secluded nations was
to transfer to his canvas faithful representations of those scenes
of conduct which were most characteristic of that people, and those
personal traits which would best transmit the memory of the savage
to times which would no longer witness his existence. This design
he fulfilled by copying on the spot pictures of the sports, fights,
business, and religious ceremonies which passed before his sight; and
the gallery which he now opens to the community, revives before the
gaze of refinement, the whole condition and qualities of the wild
and far-roaming occupants of the prairies and forests. An attentive
examination of his museum has led us to the opinion that this is one
of the most striking triumphs that the pencil has ever achieved; for
while the brush of Lawrence preserves the likeness of an individual,
that of Catlin has perpetuated the portraits of a nation. Let every
American visit this exhibition; let every one who would be informed or
entertained give it his protracted study. The more it is examined the
more it will gratify.
FRENCH PRESS.
----*----
CONSTITUTIONNEL du 22 Juin.
Le musée Catlin est une des collections les plus curieuses qu'on ait
vues à Paris, tant à cause du caractère naïf de la peinture, qu'à cause
de l'originalité des sujets qu'elle représente.
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