Wild Horses at Play 1844
georgecatlin
minneapolisinstituteofart
print, watercolor
landscape
watercolor
romanticism
united-states
watercolour illustration
watercolor
realism
"Wild Horses at Play," an 1844 watercolor by George Catlin, captures the untamed beauty of the American West. Catlin, a renowned painter of Native American life and landscapes, depicts a herd of wild horses galloping across a vast prairie, their coats shimmering in the sunlight. The distant landscape features a rolling hill, a characteristic element of the Western landscape Catlin often captured in his work. This painting, now housed in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is a testament to Catlin's keen eye for detail and his ability to convey the spirit of the American frontier.
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During the 1830s, George Catlin traversed the Great Plains to record the appearance and customs of Native people. He was among the first artists of European descent to travel widely in the Midwest and West, spending eight years chronicling scenes of daily life among the 48 indigenous tribes he encountered. In 1844, with the intention of honoring and preserving Native culture in the face of growing oppression by the U.S. government and military, Catlin published a series of 25 hand-colored lithographs based on his sketches and paintings. Though he romanticized many of his subjects, the prints in North American Indian Collection provide a glimpse of Native culture on the U.S. frontier in the 1830s.
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