THE GEOKGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY, 70 Y 



in New York with his uncle George and assisting him iu his gallery at 

 the Stuyvesant Institute, Broadway, says : 



Your uncle George has assured rae tliat I may expect you will succeed rapidly as an 

 artist. I suppose Henry (a son) is now in New York to sell his minerals. You should 

 remember that my son James (Catlin), at thirty-three years of age, the day after his 

 brother George had taken his miniature, for the first time attempted to paint and 

 succeeded in getting good likenesses of his little daughter and son, whichJ have pre- 

 served ; nest made miniatures of our two clergymen, also his wife's parents, Mr. 

 Jessup's mother, and more than forty others in the course of a few months, all good 

 likenesses, and all have been preserved and admired. The next year, being in New 

 York, he had the curiosity to step into several miniature shops and viewing their 

 work, and concluded that he could succeed in the art, and resolved that he would 

 take brushes and water-colors, &c., immediately, and travel as an artist, and would 

 have dono so, but heard the next day that Mr. Gregory had appointed him cashier of 

 the Pensacola Bank, which he accepted. 



Francis and James Catlin, brothers of George, both resided at Pen- 

 sacola, Fla., in 1839. 



He was admitted an academician of the Pennsylvania Academy of 

 Fine Arts February 18, 1824. 



Philadelphia, Pa., February 18, 1824. 

 At a special meeting of the president and directors of the Pennsylvania Academy 

 of the Fine Arts, held this evening, the election of Mr. G. Catlin as a Pennsylvania 

 academician was submitted to the board for confirmation, and the same was duly ap- 

 proved and confirmed. 

 From the minutes. 



Fred. Hopkixson, 



Secretary. 

 Mr. G. Catlin. 



George Catlin: * * » He painted miniatures, among which are noted "Ariadne," 

 after Sir Joshua Reynolds ; " Napoleon, 1821 " ; " Timothy Pickering " ; Captain Mor- 

 gan, U. S.N.; "Persico," and "Madonna and Child." — [Philadelphia, by J. Thomas 

 Scharf and Thompson Wescott, page 1054, vol. 2, chapter "Art and Artists." 



He was most successful as a miniature painter in water colors on 

 ivory. 



In the pursuit of his calltng he visited Washington, 1824 to 1829, 

 painting some public men and many of the first people of that city, 

 notably Mrs. Dolly Madison, in a turban, a picture which has been repro- 

 duced many times. 



At Eichmond in 1829-'30 he painted the famous constitutional con- 

 vention of 1839 (115 figures) in session, with a key, a most comi)reheu- 

 sive and exact work, and invaluable, as it contains portraits of the dis- 

 tinguished gentlemen who composed the convention. This picture was 

 never engraved. The portraits in it are good and the persons easily 

 recognized. It is now iu the possession of a Philadelphia gentleman. 



In Philadelphia he was very popular as a miniature and portrait 

 painter. He visited Albany, N. Y., in 1828, and painted many of the 

 members of the legislature and other i)romincnt men. He painted at 

 this time a iwrtrait of Governor De Witt Clinton, which now hangs iu 

 the governor's room in the City Hall, i^Tew York. He made a copy of 

 this for the Franklin Institute, of Rochester, N. Y. 



