710 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



It was a high and noble ambition, worthily conceived and most faith- 

 fully executed. 



DEVOTION TO THE IDEA FOR FORTY-TWO YEARS. 



Mr. Oatlin became an enthusiast in his work, and necessarily so, for 

 no one but an enthusiast could have executed so difficult a task and so 

 thoroughly. He hoped and believed that his work would survive him, 

 and throughout his writings can be found the frequently occurring state- 

 ment that he was painting for the future. 



From 1829 to 1871, a period of forty-two years, he untiringly followed 

 his life-work. In all lands and in all climes, in North and South 

 America and in Europe his name was a familiar one from 1830 to 1871. 

 In that time he saw the dreams of his early manhood realized, and knew 

 that the world felt the influence of his work. 



Steadiness of character and firmness of opinion were his aids ; with 

 these and indomitable courage he succeeded. 



His friends were many and faithful ; his enemies few, and they from 

 motives of self-interest. He was never even comfortably off in money 

 matters, relying for his livelihood upon his brush or his pen. He lived 

 poor and died the same. He received no pecuniary aid, governmental 

 or individual, in the prosecution of his work. He was a gentleman in 

 instinct and culture, and in all stations of life ; whether on the plains 

 with the Indians or in a palace with a king, he was at home. 



He received many earthly distinctions and honors in his lifetime, but 

 none above his merit. 



HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 



Mr. Oatlin was about five feet eight inches in height, thin in figure — 

 say, one hundred and thirty-five pounds in weight — a long face, dark 

 complexion, with blue eyes and black hair. He wore no beard. His 

 left cheek was marked with a long scar on the cheek-bone, the result of 

 a blow, when about ten years of age, from an Indian tomahawk which 

 glanced from a tree when thrown by a boyish comrade while playing In- 

 dian in the valley of Oc-qua-go. At seventy his teeth were good and 

 uniform ; after fifty he became deaf. 



In 1851 Gapt. Mayne Eeid met him and thus describes him : 



In George Catlin we saw one of the most graceful specimens of humanity we have 

 ever encountered. Physically he was handsome — of the purest American type — so 

 pure, indeed, that one could not help thinking he had a drop of aboriginal blood in 

 his veins. His complexion was even darker than the ordinary brown that distin- 

 guishes Brother Jonathan from his European ancestors. He was not sallow, but a 

 fine, healthy bronze, part of which may have been produced by his long exposure to 

 the wind and sun tan of the prairie. His figure was well proportioned, not large, but 

 tersely compact j while in every gesture he was graceful.— Onward, page 401, May, 

 1869. 



