Bird’s-eye View of the Mandan Village, 1800 Miles above St. Louis

George Catlin, Bird's-eye View of the Mandan Village, 1800 Miles above St. Louis, 1837-1839, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.502
Copied George Catlin, Bird's-eye View of the Mandan Village, 1800 Miles above St. Louis, 1837-1839, oil on canvas, 24 1829 in. (61.273.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.502
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Artwork Details

Title
Bird’s-eye View of the Mandan Village, 1800 Miles above St. Louis
Date
1837-1839
Dimensions
24 1829 in. (61.273.6 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Keywords
  • Figure group
  • Landscape — bird’s eye view
  • Landscape — United States
  • Indian — Mandan
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — hut
Object Number
1985.66.502
Research Notes

Artwork Description

“I have this morning, perched myself upon the top of one of the earth-covered lodges . . . and having the whole village beneath and about me, with its sachems---its warriors---its dogs---and its horses in motion---its medicines (or mysteries) and scalp-poles waving over my head---its piquets---its green fields and prairies, and river in full view, with the din and bustle of the thrilling panorama that is about me. I shall be able, I hope, to give some sketches more to the life than I could have done from any effort of recollection . . . The groups of lodges around me present a very curious and pleasing appearance, resembling in shape (more nearly than anything else I can compare them to) so many potash-kettles inverted. On the tops of these are to be seen groups standing and reclining, whose wild and picturesque appearance it would be difficult to describe. Stern warriors, like statues, standing in dignified groups, wrapped in their painted robes, with their heads decked and plumed with quills of the war-eagle.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 12, 1841; reprint 1973)

Exhibitions

Media - 1985.66.404 - SAAM-1985.66.404_1 - 9039
Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists
October 11, 2019November 22, 2020
Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists examines representations of buffalo and their integration into the lives of Native Americans on the Great Plains in the 1830s and in the twentieth century.