Spearing by Torchlight on the Amazon

The painting was created by George Catlin in 1862 as an oil on card mounted on paperboard genre scene depicting a tree. It remained in the artist's family, passing by descent to his daughters Clara Gregory Catlin, Louise Catlin Kinney, and Elizabeth Wing Catlin. In 1912 the work was purchased from Elizabeth Wing Catlin by the American Museum of Natural History.

The painting was later sold in 1959 through Kennedy Galleries, New York, to Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia, and was gifted to the National Gallery of Art in 1965. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. currently holds the work. The painting measures 57 cm in width and 41 cm in height.

The painting Spearing by Torchlight on the Amazon by George Catlin is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It was acquired by the museum in 1965 as a gift from Paul Mellon. Prior to its acquisition, the work passed through the ownership of Elizabeth Wing Catlin, who sold it in 1959 through Kennedy Galleries in New York to Paul Mellon. It had previously descended through the artist's daughters and was purchased in 1912 from Elizabeth Wing Catlin by the American Museum of Natural History.

The artwork is cataloged with an accession number of 1965.11.1 at the National Gallery of Art. It has been part of the museum's permanent collection since the gift in 1965, though specific exhibition records are not detailed in the provided sources.

The painting Spearing by Torchlight on the Amazon has been part of the National Gallery of Art's permanent collection since 1965, following its acquisition from Paul Mellon. Its provenance traces back to George Catlin, who painted it in 1862, and passed through his daughters before being sold by Elizabeth Wing Catlin in 1912 to the American Museum of Natural History. After a 1959 resale through Kennedy Galleries to Paul Mellon, it was gifted to the National Gallery of Art in 1965. The work remains accessible to the public at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Spearing by Torchlight on the Amazon is an oil painting executed on card that has been mounted on paperboard. The work measures a modest size and portrays a nocturnal riverbank scene illuminated by torches. Though the composition is simple, it captures a moment of action among figures gathered beside a stark, broken tree trunk.

The picture shows a group of warriors poised on a river’s edge, their faces and bodies lit by the flickering light of handheld torches. The central figure appears to be in the act of spearing, suggesting a hunting or combat episode. The stark tree behind them frames the scene, emphasizing the wilderness setting and the immediacy of the moment.

George Catlin, originally a lawyer, turned to art as a means of recording the cultures he encountered across the Americas. After producing topographical engravings of the Erie Canal, he spent decades traveling among Indigenous peoples, aiming to preserve their customs before they were altered by expanding settlement. This painting continues that documentary impulse, focusing on an Amazonian river scene rather than the Plains.