Mauhees Encampment

The 1862 oil on card work titled Mauhees Encampment is classified as a genre scene and is housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Its dimensions measure 62.9 cm by 47.5 cm.

The painting's provenance traces from the artist's family to the American Museum of Natural History, then to Paul Mellon, and finally as a gift to the National Gallery of Art in 1965. This trajectory reflects the circulation of Catlin's frontier imagery in American collections during the early twentieth century.

As part of George Catlin's oeuvre, the work exemplifies his interest in frontier subjects and contributes to the historical record of nineteenth-century American genre painting.

Mauhees Encampment, painted by George Catlin in 1862, is an oil on card work mounted on paperboard. This painting captures an outdoor genre scene, featuring a group of people and horses amidst trees, depicting a moment of daily life. Catlin, an American artist, dedicated much of his career to documenting the lives and cultures of Native American communities, particularly those in the American West.

The painting presents a bustling encampment, where figures and horses gather under the canopy of trees. The composition conveys a sense of activity and movement, offering a glimpse into the everyday routines of the community depicted. Catlin's focus on such scenes aimed to record the customs and environment of indigenous peoples, reflecting his broader project of ethnographic documentation through art.