Indian Encampment, Comanche (or Kiowa) Dressing Skins, Red River

George Catlin, Indian Encampment, Comanche (or Kiowa) Dressing Skins, Red River, 1846-1848, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.597
Copied George Catlin, Indian Encampment, Comanche (or Kiowa) Dressing Skins, Red River, 1846-1848, oil on canvas, 19 5⁄8 x 27 1⁄2 in. (49.7 x 70.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.597
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Indian Encampment, Comanche (or Kiowa) Dressing Skins, Red River
Artist
Date
1846-1848
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
19 5⁄8 x 27 1⁄2 in. (49.7 x 70.0 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • Western
  • Landscape — Texas
  • Indian — Comanche
  • Landscape — river — Red River
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — teepee
Object Number
1985.66.597
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1985.66.597

Artwork Description

“These people, living in a country where buffaloes are abundant, make their wigwams more easily of their skins, than of anything else; and with them find greater facilities of moving about, as circumstances often require; when they drag them upon the poles attached to their horses, and erect them again with little trouble in their new residence.” George Catlin executed this work in Paris between 1846 and 1848. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 42, 1841; reprint 1973)