The Red Man's Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman

by Benita Eisler

The first biography in over sixty years of a great American artist whose paintings are more famous than the man who made them. George Catlin has been called the “first artist of the West,” as none before him lived among and painted the Native American tribes of the Northern Plains. After a false start as a painter of miniatures, Catlin found his calling: to fix the image of a “vanishing race” before their “extermination”―his word―by a government greedy for their lands. In the first six years of the 1830s, he created over six hundred portraits―unforgettable likenesses of individual chiefs, warriors, braves, squaws, and children belonging to more than thirty tribes living along the upper Missouri River. Political forces thwarted Catlin’s ambition to sell what he called his “Indian Gallery” as a national collection, and in 1840 the artist began three decades of self-imposed exile abroad. For a time, his exhibitions and writings made him the most celebrated American expatriate in London and Paris. He was toasted by Queen Victoria and breakfasted with King Louis-Philippe, who created a special gallery in the Louvre to show his pictures. But when he started to tour “live” troupes of Ojibbewa and Iowa, Catlin and his fortunes declined: He changed from artist to showman, and from advocate to exploiter of his native performers. Tragedy and loss engulfed both. This brilliant and humane portrait brings to life George Catlin and his Indian subjects for our own time. An American original, he still personifies the artist as a figure of controversy, torn by conflicting demands of art and success. 8 pages of color, 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations

Genres: History, Art, Native American, Biography

480 pages, Hardcover

Published July 22, 2013

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent biography of the life and struggles of artist George Catlin. His paintings of American Indians** were an amazing record of their cultures. As with many artists he struggled financially, professionally and personally to let the nation and world know about his art. He left us with a rich and informative view of American Indians in the twilight of history. He was battling for a place of prominence as an artist but was often denied any support from wealthy patrons or even the government whose sole interest was annihilation of the American Indian NOT preservation of their cultures. He was for a time associated with P.T. Barnum and art shows with a 'vaudeville like' atmosphere with real American Indians --which was degrading and disheartening to the most of them.

George Catlin was a pioneer artist in many ways- his laser focus on his art leaves a legacy to all Americans, his refusal to let his collection be forgotten was essential to its survival, his contribution to ethnography with paintings and books on tribal customs and practices are still relevant to researchers to this day. His book on the O-kee-pa rituals of the Mandan tribe was considered quite shocking for its time and it provides a written and visual record of a time long past for generations to remember.

This book makes and excellent companion to Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher about famed photographer Edward Curtis and his photographic record of changing tribes. If you appreciate artists and their portrayal of American Indians this book will be a great read.

**NOTE ON THE TERM: American Indian---
" Moreover, a large number of Indians actually strongly object to the term Native American for political reasons. In his 1998 essay "I Am An American Indian, Not a Native American!", Russell Means, a Lakota activist and a founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM), stated unequivocally, "I abhor the term 'Native American.'" He continues:

I prefer the term American Indian because I know its origins. ... As an added distinction the American Indian is the only ethnic group in the United States with the American before our ethnicity. Russell Means, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/...

[Terri]

I read The Red Man’s Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman by Benita Eisler for my book club’s March 2026 “art” theme, and it turned out to be a fascinating, complicated portrait of a man whose paintings I had seen but whose life was unknown to me.
Eisler presents George Catlin as far more than a painter of Native American portraits. He emerges as a dreamer, self-promoter, opportunist, advocate, and showman—sometimes all at once. Catlin believed he was preserving a record of Native tribes before their disappearance, and his travels up the Missouri River and throughout the frontier produced hundreds of portraits and scenes that remain historically invaluable. For example, he was granted unprecedented access to the Mandan religious ceremony called O-kee-pa. Yet Eisler does not shy away from the contradictions: while he criticized U.S. government policies toward Native peoples, he also sought to profit from exhibiting their likenesses and even their cultural practices.
The sections detailing his exhibitions in England and Paris were especially compelling. What began as art shows gradually transformed into theatrical spectacles—complete with performers reenacting dances and ceremonies. These chapters raise uncomfortable but important questions about exploitation, performance, and the line between preservation and commodification.
Eisler’s writing is engaging and well-researched, and she captures both the ambition and desperation that drove Catlin. He spent decades abroad, perpetually in debt, convinced that posterity would vindicate him. In many ways, it has: his collection eventually became part of the Smithsonian, securing his place in American art history.
What I appreciated most is that this biography refuses easy answers. Was Catlin a cultural preserver or an exploiter? A visionary or a hustler? Eisler suggests he was all of these. The book left me thinking not just about Catlin himself, but about who gets to document history—and at what cost.
A thought-provoking read for anyone interested in American art, frontier history, or the uneasy intersection of culture and commerce.

From a blog post that i found on the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum website, This Week in the West Podcast #45: Traditional Cowboy Arts , Mike Koehler quotes historian Brian Dippie, who has written extensively about Catlin: “For all of the criticism of Catlin, especially the modern, rather trendy critique that he was an exploiter, his legacy was absolutely priceless. He was a dreamer, but he knew that one day posterity would demand a visual record of the First Americans, and he created it.”

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

When visiting our local art museum, Crystal Bridges, I recall seeing 19th Century American Indian paintings but paid only casual attention. Now, having read this biography and noting that the museum holds 18 of Catlin's paintings, on my next visit I'll be more aware. Eisler writes with the style of a novelist with some parts admittedly conjectural. She admits having to piece together from sketchy records his Indian country travels. Catlin seems naïve in many ways as he worked to exploit his art; always in financial straits, often taken in by unscrupulous promoters. Mysterious are his "trips" in later life to South America and the Pacific Northwest (in quotes because there's little physical evidence that he actually traveled to these places). On the whole, though, this is an intriguing and informative account of Catlin's life.

[David Iverson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing biography of an american painter who recorded the faces and lifestyle of many native american tribes in the 1820s and 1830s before many of them disappeared. A man who appeared before kings and queens, yet ended up broke the last half of his life. Ironically, his monomaniacal concern about getting his country to buy his collection for the nation, which did not happen during his lifetime, ended up being donated to the Smithsonian.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bartering between Catlin-the-transcendent-artist and Catlin-the-selfish-sycophant is really interesting. Now that I know (of) him so much more, I see his art everywhere, and the historic value of it unquestionable. I'm glad to say I walked away more on the side of Catlin-the-artist worth the historical record.