These three paintings are by George Catlin, an artist
from New York. Painted in 1832 in present-day North
Dakota, these rare examples of the Mandan tribe's
annual O-kee-pa ceremonies were painted from
real life. Catlin earned the trust of the Mandan and
was invited to witness and record their rituals
firsthand. The ceremonies included a brutal rite
of passage that tested the bravery of the tribe's
young men by stringing them up through cuts in their
backs, breasts, and extremities until they lost consciousness.
The paintings here depict events before and after
the ceremony. The work hanging at the top is called
The Bull Dance. Here's artist Kim Wiggins: "You have
to paint incredibly fast whenever you're documenting
dance scenes. You are absolutely at wit's end as
to how this man painted fast enough to document
these. He uses Indians on the side that are blocked in
one strong color field to hold the viewer in the image,
much like you would if you were focusing a camera."
Catlin was the first major painter to go West, making
five tours between 1830 and 1836. He documented
Indian tribes because he believed—as he once wrote—
that they were, "rapidly passing away from the face
of the Earth." Catlin depicted some 48 tribes, but
these are his best-known works.
This large work was painted by Alfred Jacob Miller in 1841,
thousands of miles from the American West, on a Scottish estate
owned by William Stewart, a wealthy baronet and
adventurer. The painting hung in Stewart's castle
for more than a 150 years before being
added to the Anschutz Collection. It depicts an
incident that took place on one of Stewart's many
expeditions to the Rocky Mountains. The baronet
is the figure in the center, dapper in a cream suit.
He is surrounded by a group of menacing Crow Indians,
who had entered his camp and stolen everything
they could find, right down to his pocket watch. Stewart,
who was famously hot-tempered, is credited with
staying calm, thereby saving the lives of his men.
Stewart invited the artist Alfred Jacob Miller
to accompany him to the Rockies. Miller was one of
the first American artists to study in France. His
training is evident in the exquisite details in
the paintings foreground, which are modeled on the
many Indian artifacts and plant and animal specimens
that Stewart collected on his Western travels.
He was one of the first—and perhaps most important—
of the artists who recorded scenes from early 19th
century expeditions to the American West.