Nishnabotana Bluffs, Upper Missouri

Executed in 1861, this landscape utilizes oil paint applied to a card support, which is subsequently mounted on paperboard. The work presents a formal composition focused on natural topography, specifically depicting mountains and trees characteristic of the Upper Missouri region. Physically, the piece measures 47.7 cm in height and 62.2 cm in width.

The mounting of the card onto a rigid paperboard backing suggests a specific handling approach intended to stabilize the relatively thin primary support.

Nishnabotana Bluffs, Upper Missouri was painted by George Catlin in 1861, executed in oil on card mounted on paperboard. The work remained in the artist’s family, passing by descent to his daughters Clara Gregory Catlin, Louise Catlin Kinney, and Elizabeth Wing Catlin. In 1912 Elizabeth Wing Catlin sold the painting to the American Museum of Natural History.

It was then sold in 1959 through Kennedy Galleries, New York, to Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia, who donated it to the National Gallery of Art in 1965, where it remains.

Nishnabotana Bluffs, Upper Missouri, painted by George Catlin in 1861, is part of the National Gallery of Art’s collection in Washington, D.C. The painting entered the museum in 1965 as a gift from Paul Mellon, who acquired it in 1959 from Kennedy Galleries after it had been sold by the American Museum of Natural History in 1912. No specific accession number is recorded in the available documentation, and the sources do not list any documented exhibition history for the work.

George Catlin, an American artist recognized for his extensive documentation of the American frontier, created Nishnabotana Bluffs, Upper Missouri in 1865. This oil painting on card captures a specific landscape along the Missouri River, serving as an example of Catlin's sustained effort to record both the natural environment and the indigenous cultures he encountered during his travels across the continent. The work is characteristic of his later period of landscape studies.

Throughout his career, George Catlin dedicated himself to chronicling the American West, traveling extensively along the Missouri River to paint both the indigenous tribes and the landscapes he feared were rapidly disappearing. His earlier endeavors included portraits of Plains Indians and scenes along the Erie Canal, often disseminating his observations through early lithographic publications. Nishnabotana Bluffs reflects his ongoing commitment to preserving a visual history of a changing continent.