WEBVTT - Some title

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These three paintings are by George Catlin, an artist

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from New York. Painted in 1832 in present-day North

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Dakota, these rare examples of the Mandan tribe's

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annual O-kee-pa ceremonies were painted from

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real life. Catlin earned the trust of the Mandan and

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was invited to witness and record their rituals

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firsthand. The ceremonies included a brutal rite

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of passage that tested the bravery of the tribe's

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young men by stringing them up through cuts in their

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backs, breasts, and extremities until they lost consciousness.

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The paintings here depict events before and after

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the ceremony. The work hanging at the top is called

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The Bull Dance. Here's artist Kim Wiggins: "You have

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to paint incredibly fast whenever you're documenting

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dance scenes. You are absolutely at wit's end as

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to how this man painted fast enough to document

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these. He uses Indians on the side that are blocked in

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one strong color field to hold the viewer in the image,

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much like you would if you were focusing a camera."

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Catlin was the first major painter to go West, making

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five tours between 1830 and 1836. He documented

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Indian tribes because he believed—as he once wrote—

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that they were, "rapidly passing away from the face

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of the Earth." Catlin depicted some 48 tribes, but

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these are his best-known works. 

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This large work was painted by Alfred Jacob Miller in 1841,

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thousands of miles from the American West, on a Scottish estate

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owned by William Stewart, a wealthy baronet and

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adventurer. The painting hung in Stewart's castle

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for more than a 150 years before being

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added to the Anschutz Collection. It depicts an

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incident that took place on one of Stewart's many

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expeditions to the Rocky Mountains. The baronet

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is the figure in the center, dapper in a cream suit.

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He is surrounded by a group of menacing Crow Indians,

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who had entered his camp and stolen everything

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they could find, right down to his pocket watch. Stewart,

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who was famously hot-tempered, is credited with

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staying calm, thereby saving the lives of his men.

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Stewart invited the artist Alfred Jacob Miller

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to accompany him to the Rockies. Miller was one of

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the first American artists to study in France. His

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training is evident in the exquisite details in

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the paintings foreground, which are modeled on the

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many Indian artifacts and plant and animal specimens

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that Stewart collected on his Western travels.

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He was one of the first—and perhaps most important—

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of the artists who recorded scenes from early 19th

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century expeditions to the American West.

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