Smithsonian American Art Museum
Portraits of a Grizzly Bear and Mouse, Life Size
George Catlin, born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872 · 1846-1848
George Catlin included two grizzly bears in the eight tons of material for his Indian Gallery that he brought to England in 1839. But the bears were destructive pests and Catlin eventually sold them to London’s Zoological Gardens in October, 1840. European audiences had to content themselves with life-size portraits such as this, in which the presence of a familiar, if bold, little mouse establishes the bear’s huge size.
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