A Small Tobos Village 1854 - 1869

George Catlin made this painting of a Small Tobos Village using oil on canvas, a very transportable medium. Notice the thinness of the paint, a contrast to the impasto we see elsewhere in the gallery. Catlin built up the image through many layers of thin washes, establishing a hazy atmosphere. This may have been a deliberate choice. Remember, Catlin was determined to document what he saw in the American West, a landscape and culture he believed was vanishing. He was one of many artists who took on this task of depicting Indigenous peoples, often with a dose of romanticism. We might wonder if the delicate, almost faded quality of the painting reflects a similar sense of loss, an elegy for a way of life. Consider the labor involved, both in the production of the oil paints and canvas, and Catlin's artistic effort. This painting serves as a reminder of the complex and often fraught relationship between art, representation, and cultural change.