19th C. George Catlin Lithograph - "O-Jib-Be-Ways"

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Exceptional Finds Ancient, Ethno, Fine Art

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Nov 15, 2024

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• Lot Description
  George Catlin (American, 1796-1872). "O-Jib-Be-Ways" lithograph with hand coloring, stones made in 1844, printed ca. 1875 by publishers Chatto & Windus, London. A rare first printing of George Catlin's "O-Jib-Be-Ways" from the six new plates for the North American Indian Portfolio published ca. 1875 following the discovery of 6 lithographic stones by publishers Chatto & Windus, London. (Read more about this from Christina Geiger, Head of Books & Manuscripts at Christie's New York, in the extended description below.) This group portrait includes 9 Native Americans depicted half length at the top with heads in profile below and images of birds and animals to represent the men's totems. Please note, this is an original hand-colored antique lithograph that has been professionally mounted in a custom, museum quality frame under glass. Size (sight view): 13.875" L x 17.75" W (35.2 cm x 45.1 cm) Size (frame): 24.4" L x 27.5" W (62 cm x 69.8 cm)
  
  According to Christina Geiger of Christie's New York, "Of this most impressive work of Western Americana, Catlin was able to publish only one of his planned series of four portfolios. That portfolio had 25 plates and was issued in the fall of 1844 ... Soon afterwards, Catlin soon sold the copyright to London publisher, Henry Bohn. '[Bohn] kept the book in print, with several reissues, through the late 1860s, when he sold the copyright, along with the rest of his publishing empire, to the firm of Chatto & Windus. The new publishers discovered that six more lithographic stones after Catlin had been prepared but never used. The stones were made in 1844, when Catlin had projected more portfolios, but had sat with the printer ever since' (Best of the West)."
  
  About the artist: George Catlin was the first accomplished artist to travel among and visually document the customs and traditions of the Plains Indians. Catlin hoped that his artwork and written observations would demonstrate the importance of respecting and preserving Native American culture. In 1830, George Catlin - lawyer turned artist - left his home in Pennsylvania to travel the American West and visually document North American Indians and their ways of life. After 8 years among the major tribes of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, he created an "Indian Gallery," comprised of more than 400 paintings and an expansive collection of artifacts he had collected during his travels. In addition to exhibiting these, Catlin published a selection of his finest works in the "North American Indian Portfolio" in order to expand his audience.
  
  Catlin's oeuvre stems from a lifelong fascination with Native Americans and a desire to preserve, in his words, "the looks and customs of the vanishing races of native man in America" with his art. This passion took root when Catlin was just a nine-year-old boy; exploring the woods of southcentral New York along the Susquehanna River in 1805, he came upon an Oneida Indian who greeted him in a warm, kind-hearted manner. This memory purportedly stayed with the artist throughout his career.
  
  Despite the fact that Catlin had no formal training as an artist, he did have an undeniable talent for drawing. Although his father encouraged him to study law instead of art, the legal trials were far less interesting to Catlin that the imagery before him. Catlin found himself sketching judges, offenders, and jury members, and within a few years time, he decided to sell his law books and move to Philadelphia to pursue art. Lacking direction, he painted portraits but was dissatisfied with these subjects until, in approximately 1828, a delegation of Native Americans stopped in Philadelphia en route to Washington, D.C. and Catlin was reportedly drawn to what he described as "their classic beauty." Seduced by the romance of the "disappearing races", Catlin recognized that smallpox and whiskey were decimating the indigenous peoples, and vowed that "nothing short of the loss of my life, shall prevent me from visiting their country, and of becoming their historian." So in 1830, Catlin headed West where he stayed for six years (returning East most winters to his family) and painted 300 portraits and almost 175 ritual scenes and landscapes. In 1837, following his return to New York, Catlin set up an exhibition in salon style (stacked from floor to ceiling) that made quite an impression.
  
  As an artist, Catlin was both honored and criticized during his lifetime; however, the fact that he had created the largest of pre-photographic imagery depicting Native americans - a remarkable record - is undeniable. Bruce Watson, in his review of a 2002 Renwick Gallery exhibition of Catlin's work, wrote, "Though not the first artist to paint American Indians, Catlin was the first to picture them so extensively in their own territories and one of the few to portray them as fellow human beings rather than savages. His more realistic approach grew out of his appreciation for a people who, he wrote, 'had been invaded, their morals corrupted, their lands wrested from them, their customs changed, and therefore lost to the world.' Such empathy was uncommon in 1830, the year the federal Indian Removal Act forced Southeastern tribes to move to what is now Oklahoma along the disastrous 'Trail of Tears.'" (Bruce Watson, "George Catlin's Obsession," Smithsonian Magazine, December, 2002)
  
  In a famous passage from the preface of his "North American Indian Portfolio", Catlin describes how the sight of several tribal chiefs in Philadelphia inspired him to record their way of life: "the history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy of the lifetime of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian". Understanding that the Native Americans' future was in jeopardy, Catlin worked tirelessly, always feeling the pressure of time, to record what he saw - an artist-as-ethnographer. From 1832 to 1837 Catlin sketched the tribes during the summer months and during the winters he would paint the imagery in oils. In addition to exhibiting these, he published a selection of the finest of images from this record in the "North American Indian Portfolio" in order to expand his audience.
  
  Cf. William S. Reese, The Production of Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio, 1844-1876.
  
  Inscriptions:
  
  Lower left engraved on stone, below image: G. Catlin, Del.
  
  Lower left engraved on stone: (Ent.d. at Sta.rs. Hall.)
  
  Lower center engraved on stone, below image: O=JIB=BE=WAYS. \ No. 1 Ah=qwe=wee=zaints; (the Boy Chief) No. 4. San=mah; (Tobacco) No. 7. Wos=see=als=e=neuh=qua; Woman. \ "2. Pat=au=ah=quot=a=wee-be; (the driving cloud,) war chief, "5. Gish.=e=gosh=e=gee; (the moonlight night) "8. Nib=nab=e=qua; Child \ 3; Wee=nish=ka=wee-be; (the flying Gull) "6. Not=een=a=akm; (strong wind) Interpreter) "9. Ne=bet=neuh=qua; Woman \ The Symbols attached are fac=similes of each man's respective Totem or signature. \ Day & Haghe, Lith.rs to the Queen.
  
  Lower right engraved on stone, below image: On Stone by. Mc.Gahey
  
  Please note: This lithograph is held in esteemed institutions such as the Amon Carter Museum (2004.18.29); the Carnegie Museum of Art (59.41.14); the Gilcrease Museum (15.13); the British Museum (1871,0812.4231)
  
  Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection; Private collection of a Private Colorado Family
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #184070

  Condition

  An original hand-colored antique lithograph. Striking group portrait with inscriptions below (see extended description for delineation of these inscriptions). Print is mounted under glass in attractive custom frame. Fit with suspension wire and ready to display.
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