George Catlin¿s Portraits of Native Americans

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Art - Visual artists, grade: 1,30, University College Cork, language: English, abstract: This essay critically analyses the painter¿s use of visual means to represent the subject and demonstrate that Catlin did not depict his sitters entirely lifelike by focusing on the authenticity, modifications and external influences of his portraits. The brief historical and cultural contextualisation of the topic will be followed by an analysis of the portraits of the tribal chiefs Stu-mick-o-súcks and Máh-to-tóh-pa as examples of ¿Republican Indians¿. Subsequently, it scrutinizes the historical impact of the artist¿s portraits by introducing Catlin¿s narrative portrait of Wi-jún-jon, which documents an Indian individual¿s fate and reveals the artist¿s attitude towards Native Americans¿ encounter with civilisation. Work completed under the supervision of Dr Simon Knowles in fulfilment of the requirements of the Module HA 2009 "Creator and Subject: Themes in Portraiture", University College Cork, 2016.