Salmon Spearing - Ottowas

George Catlin's Salmon Spearing - Ottowas, created in 1861, is executed in oil paint on a card support that is subsequently mounted on paperboard. The work measures 46.7 cm in height and 62.1 cm in width. Classified as a genre scene, the painting depicts a tree within its composition.

The physical construction involves the adhesion of the painted card to a paperboard backing, a method that stabilized the smaller format for display and preservation. The surface retains the characteristics of mid-19th-century oil handling typical of the artist's later period works housed in major collections.

Salmon Spearing – Ottowas, an oil on card mounted on paperboard, was created in 1861 by George Catlin. The work entered the artist’s family after its execution and passed 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, which later disposed of it in 1959 through Kennedy Galleries, New York, to Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia.

Mellon gifted the piece to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it remains on view.

George Catlin, an American painter and former lawyer, created Salmon Spearing – Ottowas in 1865. This oil painting, rendered on card mounted on paperboard, exemplifies his dedication to portraying Native American life. The work depicts an Ottawa man engaged in traditional salmon fishing, a subject consistent with Catlin's extensive documentation of Indigenous communities across the American frontier. It is considered part of the American folk art tradition.

Catlin dedicated many years to observing and recording Native American cultures. During the 1830s, he undertook five expeditions across the American West, producing numerous portraits and written accounts of Plains Indian communities. His commitment to documenting these societies followed earlier artistic endeavors, including engravings of sites along the Erie Canal, which were featured in an early lithographic publication.