THE CATLIN COLLECTION OF INDIAN PAINTINGS 595 



sketching boxes, with their complication of conveniences. The com- 

 pressible metallic tnbe had not been invented, or at least not introduced 

 into the armamentarium of art. Not one-fourth, of the present tints of 

 Winsor and Newton's catalogue were then known. Rapidly drying 

 vehicles were not in vogue. The artist ground his own paints — coarse, 

 crude paints — and carried them around mixed in pots or dry in paper. 

 I do not think that a careful analysis of Catlin's paintings will reveal 

 more than a dozen pigments ; I have reference to the paintings which 

 were taken, so to speak, on the wing. He had not accommodations for 

 more. While collecting a large number of these views, he was travel- 

 ing with two other men in a small canoe, which, in addition to his 

 paints and canvas, held their clothing, bedding, ammunition and pro- 

 visions; in fact, everything necessary for life and comfort in a land in- 

 habited only by savages. Ethnographic travelers of to day, with pocket 

 camera and instantaneous dry-plates, have avast advantage over Catlin 

 with his red lead — which he used liberally — his boiled oil and his rolled 

 canvas; but their results are not correspondingly more accurate. Many 

 of his sketches, too, were necessarily taken in great haste. Yet he 

 never failed to catch the spirit of the scene before him and to transfer 

 it faithfully to his canvas. But, while making all just excuses for Cat- 

 lin, it must be acknowledged that he was not acquainted with all the 

 resources of his art as it existed even in his day. He was a self taught 

 man. 



From my own experience, following, as I have done for years, in the 

 very trail of Catlin, I can not speak too highly of his general truthful- 

 ness; yet he suffered from certain limitations of his time and surround- 

 ings which have impaired the usefulness of his literary Avork. With- 

 out telling any direct falsehood, he succeeds sometimes in deceiving the 

 reader. His books must be read critically ; they are not of equal use 

 to all students. In this year of our Lord there are so many workers in 

 all specialties, and the facilities for publication in each are so great, 

 that one may write on the driest and most technical subjects, in the 

 least interesting manner, and yet be reasonably certain of finding a 

 publisher and a coterie of readers. It was not thus in America fifty 

 years ago, and Catlin, who was a poor man, in order to make his enter- 

 prise pay, had to write for a general public, whom he felt obliged to in- 

 terest as well as instruct. He sometimes painted also with this intent, 

 as will be shown later. Indeed, he thus candidly criticises himself in 

 one of his letters : 



"It would be impossible at tbe same time, in a book of these dimensions, to explain 

 all tbe manners and customs of these people ; but as far as they are narrated, they 

 have been described by my pen, upon the spot, as I have seen them transacted ; and 

 if some few of my narrations should seem a little too highly colored, I trust the world 

 will be ready to extend to me that pardon which it is customary to yield to all artists 

 whose main faults exist in the vividness of their coloring rather than in the draw- 

 ing of their pictures; but there is nothing else in them, I think, that I should ask 

 pardon for, even though some of them should stagger credulity and incur for me the 

 censure of critics." 



