what’s wrong with this picture?

ron,

Tommow is NOW.  Where is the answer?????

Please?

BEAR

TTU nailed it first: the date of the painting is several years after the artists death. they also, for some ungodly reason, have it listed as a photo gravure rather than a painting. i have no explanation for this.

the painting hangs at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but this entry was from the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. i JUST thought of this, but perhaps a photo gravure was made in 1891 of the original painting, and this is what we are looking at now. in that case, i guess the date WOULD be correct, in a way. an 1891 photo of a circa 1840's painting......maybe....i don't know. in any case, the date of the death of the artist vs. the dateof the work of art is what i was going for.

here is his "commentary" on what you see in this painting>>

"Many of the Indians have no horses with which to pursue the Buffalos, and when the animals are grazing on the extended, level plains, use a strategem to approach them. The Indian, placing himself under the skin of a white wolf, so well imitates the motions and actions of that animal, that he easily approaches the unsuspecting herd near enough to deal his deadly arrows with effect"

catlin was out west in the 1830's, and lived with the mandans over a summer. he did paint some winter scenes, but if i remember correctly, he never actually observed any hunting in the winter, because he was back east by then. here's an example.

while catlin's work lacks the technical merit of bodmer and miller, he is a sentimental favorite of mine. for more discussion on these three artists who were all out west within a couple of years of each other, please check out my collection profile on the museum's alfred jacob miller piece.