George Catlin

“ Le Musée-Indien de M. Catlin.—Lorsque la civilisation recule partout les bornes de son horison et resserre dans un étroit espace les peuplades nomades et sauvages qui se refusent au joug de la domination européenne, ce n’est pas sans un certain intérêt qu’on visite le Musée Indien de M. Catlin. En voyant la collection du célèbre touriste, l’esprit se refuse à croire que ce soit là l’œuvre d’un seul homme. ”

“ No man has tasted these scenes of daring and peril with half the sympathy and understanding of Mr. Catlin; and neither in the delicate touches of Irving, nor the more vigorous drawings of Hoffman, is there anything like the intelligence and interest of these animated sketches. Whoever would know to what sounds of glee and exultation the northern forests, even at this hour, are echoing, or with what spectacles of merriment or toil the flatness of the prairie is enlivened, must view and ponder over this collection. ”

“ Son abord est froidement poli, son visage sévère et pensif, comme celui d’un homme qui a vu beaucoup de choses. Toute sa personne révèle une indomptable énergie. En public, il parle l’Anglais avec une remarquable puissance; il y a dans son accentuation quelque chose du magnifique enthousiasme d’un poète.
Le grand ouvrage de M. Catlin est un beau monument élevé à la science; il faut espérer qu’on songera à en donner une traduction Française. Chemin fesant, M. Catlin a dessiné et peint une étrange collection de vues, de scènes naturelles, de portraits d’indigènes et de scènes de mœurs. ”

“ Gentlemen, I have the satisfaction of informing you that there is at our table an individual whose name when I mention it will be familiar to most of you; who, contemplating several millions of human beings in his own country sinking into oblivion before the destructive influences of civilization, had the energy of character, the courage and philanthropy, to throw himself, unprotected and unaided, into the midst of them, with his brushes and his pen, endeavouring to preserve for future ages their familiar looks, and all that appertained to their native modes and history. ”

“ As these bold sketches were executed in the wigwam, in the tent, in the steam-boat, in the forest, in the canoe, in storm and sunshine, amid strife and smoke, and every possible variety of interruption and annoyance, their existence is a miracle, and the artist may be proud of the fire and spirit, the truth and energy, yes, and the freedom and power with which he has, under such circumstances conveyed to canvas the vivid impress of the ancient nobles of the forest and the prairie. ”

“ With what feelings will our descendants enter some department of the British Museum, or some Palais or Musée in the city of Bourbons, to see a treasure thus surrendered by their fathers? Can they boast of Catlin’s powers as a national glory? Others can point to the possession of the fruits of them as our national disgrace.
Whether in justice or in wrong, our treatment of the Indian nations has been a reproach to us through the world. Let it not be in a stranger’s power to show how noble and how elevated a race we are thus accused of having injured. ”

“ I have informed the reader already that, just before completing the above adventure, the Ojibbeways having left London, and my large work being published to the world, I was turning my eyes to my native country again, where, with my little ones and my collection, I was preparing to go; but even this was not to be as we had designed it, for it was announced, just then, that another party of fourteen Indians had arrived in Liverpool, and were on their way to the metropolis! Life has its chapters, like the chapters of a book; and our days are like the leaves we turn in reading it. ”

“ As they entered the hall, the portraits of several hundreds of the chiefs and warriors of their own tribe and of their enemies were hanging on the walls and staring at them from all directions, and wigwams, and costumes and weapons of all constructions around them: they set up the most frightful yells and made the whole neighbourhood ring with their howlings; they advanced to the portraits of their friends and offered them their hands; and at their enemies, whom they occasionally recognised, they brandished their tomahawks or drew their bows as they sounded the war-whoop. ”

“ They were in his hall in a moment, having thoughtlessly sounded a yell of exultation as they landed on the pavement, and being wrapped in their robes, with their bows and arrows and tomahawks in their hands—as Indians are sure to be seen when entering a strange place—the landlord, taking a glance at them as he passed out, called out to Daniel, “What the devil is all this? I can’t take in these folks; you must load them up again. You told me they were Indians.” “Well! they are,” said Daniel. “No, they’re not; they’re wild men, and they look more like the devil than anything else. ”

“ Catlin’s paintings have performed for the Indian tribes. The first of these has excited the admiration of America, the second has won the applause of Europe; if the last is less brilliant than the one, it is more lively than the other, and it is not less complete than either. It is not merely a minute and thorough description of a nation whose situation and history render everything that relates to it in the highest degree curious and personal to Americans, but it addresses itself to the admiration and instruction of every philosophic mind as an encyclopædia picture of the savage state. ”

“ With my dear Clara I took my strolls and my rides to see what was amusing or instructive in the great metropolis, and we saw much that amused and still more that astonished us. Through the kindness of our untiring friend Mr. Murray, we got access to the palaces of St. James and Buckingham, and to the public and private rooms of Windsor Castle; we saw the “five tons’ weight of gold plate” that are said to enrich that noble palace, and which but few eyes are allowed to gaze upon. ”

“ Les hommes rapprochés de la nature ne se tortillent pas comme les civilisés. Le calme est d’ordre naturel; et c’est là un des premiers élémens de la beauté antique qu’on retrouve dans la beauté sauvage.
Les paysagistes pourraient bien aussi étudier avec profit la peinture facile et vraie de M. Catlin qui n’est pourtant initié à aucun des procédés scabreux de l’art civilisé. M. Catlin peint tranquillement du premier coup, en mettant un ton juste et franc à côté d’un autre, et il ne paraît pas qu’il revienne jamais ni par glacis ni par empâtement. ”

“ C’est le portrait aussi fidèle que possible, le daguerréotype d’un monde qu’on ne retrouvera plus, et le gouvernement l’a laissé partir, l’a laissé perdre; il n’a pas même senti la nécessité de l’acquérir. Il n’a fait ni une offre ni un prix à l’artiste qu’il eût récompensé ainsi qu’il devait l’être de dix ans d’études et d’efforts. Tout le monde y aurait gagné: le peintre qui craint devoir éparpiller un jour le résultat de tant de peines et de travaux, eût été heureux de le voir conservé, concentré, consacré à jamais, en lieu sûr, à la science et à l’art. ”

“ The production of the work will, therefore, be most acceptable to those who have seen the exhibition, as serving to refresh their memories; to those who have not, as helping to explain that of which they have heard so much; to all as a pleasant narrative of adventure, and a circumstantial and detailed history of the manners and customs of an interesting people, whose fate is sealed, whose days are numbered, whose extinction is certain. The Americans should make much of Mr. Catlin for the sake of by-gone days, which his books, portraits, and collections will present to their grandchildren. ”

“ M. Catlin fit ses paquets qui n’étaient pas lourds, et qui se composaient de toiles roulées, de brosses, de couleurs, de papier et de crayons; il mit sa carabine en bandouliere; et le bâton blanc à la main il partit pour l’Ouest en quête d’aventures, de Peaux-Rouges, de buffles et de prairies.
Mais au train dont marchent les Yankees, il avait long à aller avant d’atteindre les vastes solitudes où sont encore disséminées les peuplades sauvages. La civilisation le poursuivait partout; là où il espérait voyager en canot, il était forcé de prendre le bateau à vapeur ”

“ Rien de plus touchant que l’apologie des Indiens faite par M. Catlin, dans sa neuvième lettre; partout où il peut mettre en saillie la noblesse de leur caractère, M. Catlin le fait avec bonheur; il se souvient du bon temps passé au milieu d’eux, des marques d’affection qu’ils lui out données, et il les venge du mépris que les civilisés déversent sur ces pauvres et braves gens, contents de leur sort, sans regret du passé, sans souci de l’avenir, sans autres lois que celles de l’honneur qui est tout puissant chez eux. ”

“ Living with them as one of themselves; having no trading purposes to serve; exciting no enmity by the well-meant but suspicious preaching of a new religion, Mr. Catlin went on with his rifle and his pencil, sketching and noting whatever he saw worthy of record; and wisely abandoning all search for the ancient history of a people who knew no writing, he confined his labours to the depicting exactly what he saw, and that only. ”

“ They are free men, and not slaves; and in a free country like this, who will have the cruelty to say to them, ‘Stop your vocation, and go to the streets, like the poor Lascars, with brooms in your hands;’ or the kindness to say, ‘Quit your dancing, and we will pay your expenses to the shores of Lake Huron, and give you money to buy blankets and food for your wives and little children’? ”

“ My friends—We know that the Great Spirit made the red men to dwell in the forests, and white men to live in green fields and in fine houses; and we believe that we shall live separate in the world to come. The best that we expect or want in a future state is a clear sky and beautiful hunting-grounds, where we expect to meet the friends whom we loved; and we believe that if we speak the truth we shall go there. This we think might not suit white people, and therefore we believe that their religion is best for them. ”

“ It is at all events yet in the power of each to visit the collection in his own country. Let no man who bears the honoured name of an American fail to do so. He has no idea of what the rude forefathers of his forests were. He has never had Indian existence in its varied forms presented to him in such life-like reality, never before so much relating to this people so systematically brought together. In the labours of Catlin’s hand and in the achievements of his pencil, we and our descendants must now look for the history of our national ancestry. ”

“ Catlin’s seven or eight years’ sojourn among the red races of North America, we need now only say that his representation of them, their country, their costumes, their sports, their religious ceremonies, and in short their manners and customs, so as to enable us to form a complete idea of them, is deserving of the utmost praise. There are above 500 subjects in these spacious rooms, from a wigwam to a child’s rattle; and everything belonging to the various Indian tribes are before the spectator in their actual condition and integrity. ”

“ He is as unlike to a grizly bear as any one else in the world, both in looks and in disposition; but he happened to have on for the occasion a black oil-cloth hood or cap, which was tied under the chin; and a jacket covered with long fur on the outside, making his figure (which was of goodly size, and which just filled the gangway) , with a little of the lively imagination belonging to such moments, look the counterpart of a grizly bear. “Where’s Catlin?” said he; “damn the bears!” “Are they out?” cried the passengers all together. ”

“ Catlin’s Gallery of North American Indians.—Of all the exhibitions that have been brought forward for the amusement of the public, we must give this of Mr. Catlin the preference in every point of view; it possesses not only present but future interest, for perhaps not many generations may flourish and fade before nearly the whole of the aboriginal tribes will be wholly extirpated. Wherever the imprint of the white man’s foot has flattened the grass of the prairie, it may be looked upon as an ominous token to the unsuspecting native. ”

“ Captain James, a bland and good-natured Scotsman, commander of the Scotia, the unfortunate vessel, was invited by Captain Collins to the cabin of the Roscius, and into his state-room, where he was soon put into a suit of dry and warm clothes, and afterwards seated at the table; where, suddenly, a sullen resistance to food, and contemplative tears rolling over his cheeks, showed his rough shell to contain a heart that was worthy of the fondest affections of a dear wife and sweet little ones—none of which was he blessed with, if I recollect aright. ”

“ In common with other lovers of amusement, we have visited this collection, and have found that it fully justifies whatever has been said by those who visited it in Boston and New York, and described it as the most surprising, entertaining, and instructive exhibition which the efforts of American genius have ever brought before the country....
In this stage of human knowledge Catlin resolved to devote the labours of his life to exploring the condition, customs, character, and conduct of this people, and to bring home a record of their being, which should be to the world a possession for ever. ”