George Catlin at the Renwick

Several hundred Indian and related paintings by George Catlin are in the upper gallery at the Renwick. All are part of the Smithsonian collection.

Catlin painting Indian scenes from 1828-1848. His catalog shows that he made over 600 paintings during this time period. Each is numbered and described in an 1848 catalog, that the Smithsonian has reproduced for this exhibit.

His Indian portraits are of obvious interest, as are his scenes of buffalo hunting, Indian dances and Indian villages. Even one of his few non-Indian paintings, that of the St. Louis waterfront painted from across the river in Illinois is of interest. His notes say that at the time of this painting, in the early 1830s, St. Louis had 25,000 residents. It looks like quite a big city. No high-rises, of course, and not even the "old" court house, but it stretched for quite a way on the river. About a dozen large river boats are also in evidence.

But, having said all of this, the fact of the matter is that these paintings are of historic value only; they are not works of art. Catlin could not draw well (of course, he could draw better than I can, but not well), and has no concept of depth. It is as if these would fit into a category of "naive" or "primitif" art. That surprised me.