{"id":45841,"date":"2026-02-19T17:27:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T22:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/?post_type=product&p=45841"},"modified":"2026-02-22T02:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:18:21","slug":"native-americans-catching-the-wild-horse-george-catlin-antique-print-london-1844","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/product\/native-americans-catching-the-wild-horse-george-catlin-antique-print-london-1844\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Americans, Catching the Wild Horse, George Catlin, Antique Print, London, 1844"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State Historical Society of Missouri has an example of this print in their collection that they describe well online as follows:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cCatching the Wild Horse,\u201d Catlin represents the method by which certain Indigenous people captured wild horses for domestication.\u00a0 He pictures the initial pursuit of the horses in the background, showing two riders attempting to lasso a group of fleeing equines.\u00a0 In the foreground the artist depicts a Native American man trying to control a lassoed horse after having dismounted from an already domesticated steed.\u00a0 Catlin describes the process as \u201cbreaking down\u201d the untamed horse.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Since Catlin would have been unable to copy the fast-moving action represented directly from life, he likely created this image in the studio from sketches, memories, and well-known prototypes.\u00a0 The image of the horse has some similarities to an engraved and often-copied eighteenth-century composition by George Stubbs, \u201cA Horse Frightened by a Lion.\u201d\u00a0 A version of the Catlin\u2019s 1832 composition \u201cBreaking the Wild Horse\u201d survives at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D. C., accession number 1985.66.501.\u00a0 A line engraving of the composition appears as plate 162 in Catlin\u2019s 1841 book, \u201cLetters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The following biography of Catlin appears on the website of the Smithsonian Museum, which holds a major collection of his original works:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A self-taught artist, George Catlin is best remembered for his extensive travels across the American West, recording the lives of Native Americans in a collection of images the artist called his Indian Gallery. Early in his career, Catlin practiced law in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, having passed the bar exam in 1818. He abandoned his practice in 1821 to pursue painting. Catlin enjoyed modest success painting portraits and miniatures, but found both inadequate to his ambition of becoming a history painter. In 1828, after seeing a delegation of western Indians in the east, he had found a subject, as he later wrote, “on which to devote a whole life-time of enthusiasm.” Catlin traveled the frontier from 1830 to 1836, visiting fifty tribes west of the Mississippi, from present-day North Dakota to Oklahoma, and creating an astonishing visual record of Native American life. Catlin’s Indian Gallery was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1879 …. Several hundred of Catlin’s Indian portraits now hang in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition to producing original paintings, Catlin self-published a set of 25 hand-colored lithographs in London in 1844, in his North American Indian Portfolio.<\/b> The preface stated: “The history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy of the lifetime of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian.” Although Catlin planned on producing a series of additional prints from his Indian Gallery paintings, the initial portfolio proved too great an expense, so it was the only he published. Nonetheless, a so-called pirated, albeit much sought-after high-quality version of this work was published in New York in 1845, with the prints relithographed, under the direction of British publisher Rudloph Ackermann.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Condition:\u00a0 Generally very good, recently professionally cleaned and deacidified, with light remaining toning, handling, wear, soft creases. Minor faded toning mark in margins, can be rematted out.<\/p>\n

References:\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Catlin, George Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indian<\/i>, London: Geo. Catlin, 1841.\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Howes, Wright. U.S.-Iana (1650-1950).<\/i>\u00a0 R.R. Bowker, 1978. C243.<\/p>\n

Reese, “The Production of Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio, 1844-1876,” unpublished<\/p>\n

Sabin, Joseph, Wilberforce Eames and R.W.G. Vail.\u00a0 Dictionary of Books Relating to America: From Its Discovery to the Present Time, Volumes I and II<\/i>. Mansfield Center, CT: Martino, 1998 (reprint of 1868 ed.).\u00a0 11532.<\/p>\n

Wagner, Henry R., and Charles L. Camp. The Plains and the Rockies: A Bibliography of Original Narratives of Travel and Adventure, 1800-1865.<\/i> 4th ed., University of Nebraska Press, 1982. Entry 105a:3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Catlin (1796-1872) (after)
\nJohn McGahey (lithographer)
\nCatching the Wild Horse, Plate 4<\/b>
\nfrom North American Indian Portfolio<\/i><\/b>
\nGeorge Catlin, London: 1844
\nDay and Haghe, London (lithographers)
\nHand-colored lithograph
\n13.25 x 18.25 inches, ruled border
\n15.5 x 22.5 inches, overall
\nPrice on Request<\/p>\n

A fine print by the renowned American artist George Catlin from his celebrated set of lithographs published in the North American Indian Portfolio<\/b>. Together they record various different native American tribes, often engaged in activities such as sport or hunting, within expansive vistas of the unspoiled western American territories of the mid 19th<\/sup> century. This subject matter is also reflected in the subtitle of the original edition that Catlin published in London in 1844: \u201cHunting Scenes and Amusements of the Rocky Mountains and Prairies of America. From Drawings and Notes of the Author, made during Eight Years’ Travel.\u201d This portfolio is considered among the finest and most important records of the \u00a0American West as it was in the early days of its exploration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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