Artwork
Three Creek Indians
Three Creek Indians is an oil painting by the American Folk Art artist George Catlin. It dates from 1865 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
Oil on card mounted on paperboard, Three Creek Indians measures 45.
Oil on card mounted on paperboard, Three Creek Indians measures 45.6 by 61.8 cm and portrays a portrait subject. The work entered the National Gallery of Art collection in 1965 after passing through the artist's descendants and a 1959 sale by Kennedy Galleries to Paul Mellon. Formal qualities align with Catlin's approach to depicting Indigenous subjects with attention to accurate representation and compositional detail, reflecting his broader practice of documenting Native American life in the 19th century.
History & Provenance
Created in 1865 by George Catlin, Three Creek Indians is an oil on card mounted on paperboard portrait now held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The work entered the museum's collection in 1965 as a gift from Paul Mellon, having been acquired from Kennedy Galleries in New York following its 1959 sale by the American Museum of Natural History. That museum had purchased the work in 1912 from Elizabeth Wing Catlin, who inherited it from her father George Catlin alongside her sisters Clara Gregory Catlin and Louise Catlin Kinney.
Three Creek Indians is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it entered the collection in 1965 as a gift from Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia. The painting had reached Mellon in 1959, when it was sold by the American Museum of Natural History through Kennedy Galleries in New York. Prior to that institutional phase, the work descended through the artist's family: from George Catlin to his daughters Clara Gregory Catlin, Louise Catlin Kinney, and Elizabeth Wing Catlin, with the museum's 1912 purchase made directly from Elizabeth Wing Catlin.
No exhibition history beyond this chain of ownership is documented in the available sources.
Overview
Created in 1865, Three Creek Indians is an oil painting executed on card that has been mounted on paperboard. The work presents three figures standing in an open field beneath a blue sky mottled with clouds. Each figure is dressed in distinctive traditional attire, featuring robes of varying hues accented with red and a headdress on one individual.
Subject & Meaning
The composition portrays three members of a Creek community, rendered in a straightforward portrait format that emphasizes individual presence rather than narrative action. By focusing on attire and posture, the painting offers a visual record of Creek dress and identity as observed by the artist during his field studies.
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Artist & collection
Artist
George Catlin ( KAT-lin; July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the American frontier.
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