Moving Camp
Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum is about to break camp and hit the road again.Seventy treasures of western art will pack up at their current venue, the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida, on June 10, 2001. Next stop: National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, beginning July 2.
Part of Lure of the West, George Catlin's canvas, Comanche Moving Camp, Dog Fight Enroute, shows that even the village dogs must “pull their weight” when moving camp. Often, tempers flared and fights broke out among the dogs.
Catlin witnessed many of these extraordinary scenes and took great delight in recording one in Comanche Moving Camp. He notes that in the melee the women came to “fisticuffs” while the men “riding leisurely on the right or left, take infinite pleasure in overlooking these desperate conflicts, at which they are sure to have a laugh … and never lift a hand.”
Pictured top: George Catlin, 1796–1872, Comanche Moving Camp, Dog Fight Enroute, 1834–35, oil, 19 5/8 x 27 5/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison Jr.
Source: Merry Foresta. Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured bottom: Detail of Comanche Moving Camp, Dog Fight Enroute by George Catlin.