Comanche War Party, Mounted on Wild Horses

George Catlin, born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872 · 1834-1837

George Catlin’s descriptions of Native Americans reveal his respect for the tribes and nations that he feared would soon vanish. “Every one of these red sons of the forest (or rather of the prairie) is a knight and lord . . . the only things which he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed, with his bow and quiver slung, his arrow-shield upon his arm, and his long lance glistening in the war-parade . . .” George Catlin probably painted this work in his studio between 1835 and 1837. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 4, 1841, reprint 1973; Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979)