148 BALCH— THE ART OF GEORGE CATLIN. 



or in some cases he may have saved time which in painting at high 

 speed in the wilds must frequently have been precious. 



Most of Catlin's pictures are on prepared paper of a light grayish 

 brown, which often helps a good deal as an undercolor, occasionally 

 remaining untouched. The pictures, as a rule, are light but not 

 bright in tone ; there are few brilliant lights and few deep dark'; • 

 they are usually in a high middle, somewhat dull, register. 



Catlin's palette is limited but complete. Ah the essential colors 

 are on it. The bright colors are used most sparingly and only in 

 small touches and accents. There is certainly wlme lead. Yellow 

 ochre is much used. A little bright yellow, which may be Naples 

 yellow. Light red. A few touches of two bright reds, almost 

 surely vermilion and rose madder. One bright blue, which almost 

 certainly is cobalt. In one or two cases, in night effects, there 

 seems to be some darker blue, possibly indigo. Brown, probably 

 Vandyke and umber, is a good deal used. Black is occasionally em- 

 ployed and sometimes in night effects pure or nearly pure. There 

 is much dull, usually light green in Catlin's pictures : this may well 

 be a mixture rather than a pure pigment. 



The method of Catlin in laying on the paint is of interest. The 

 paint is thin and smooth. It is all applied evenly in one thin coat 

 without retouches. There is no impasto ; there are no repcntirs. 

 His work might almost be called tinted drawing rather than paint- 

 ing. There are two explanations of this mode of work. One of 

 them is that it was to a great extent the method then in use. The 

 painters covered their canvas with a slick surface of paint, from 

 which all roughnesses and ridges were removed. Thq other cause 

 probably is the great difficulty Catlin must have had in carrying ma- 

 terials and paints with him. He must have opened his colors on 

 his palette in the smallest possible amounts, and made every speck 

 of paint do as much covering as possible. 



One of the curiosities of the Catlin collections at Washington 

 and at New York, is that there are no sketch books, no rough draw- 

 ings, no slips of paper with pencil or chalk marks or blots of water 

 color. Catlin does speak in connection with his first bison hunt, 

 of making drawings of an old bull from his horse in his sketch book, 

 and in another place he writes of altering the finished portrait of a 



