Cedar Bluffs

Cedar Bluffs (1865) by George Catlin entered a notable lineage after its creation, moving from the artist's daughters to the American Museum of Natural History in 1912 before being acquired by Paul Mellon in 1959 and gifted to the National Gallery of Art in 1965. The work remains part of the National Gallery of Art's collection in Washington, D.C., where it is studied within the context of 19th-century American landscape painting and Catlin's broader documentation of frontier subjects.

Cedar Bluffs, painted by George Catlin in 1865, entered the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it has been part of the museum's holdings since its acquisition in 1965. The work was previously owned by the artist's descendants before being sold to Paul Mellon in 1959 and subsequently gifted to the museum. Its presence in a major national collection has contributed to ongoing scholarly attention to Catlin's body of work, particularly in assessments of 19th-century American landscape painting.

The painting is frequently referenced in studies of Catlin's role in documenting frontier regions and in surveys of early American art.

Created in 1865, Cedar Bluffs is an oil painting executed on card that has been mounted on a paperboard support. The composition presents a modest hill punctuated by a few trees, a distant body of water, and a herd of bison, one of which lies down. A cloudy blue sky arches above, lending the scene a tranquil, open‑air atmosphere.

The work depicts a prairie landscape where wildlife and terrain coexist, emphasizing the quiet presence of bison grazing on the hillside. By placing the animals within a gently rolling environment, the painting suggests a harmonious relationship between the land and its native fauna, reflecting a view of the American West as both inhabited and unspoiled.