George Catlin “View of West Point, 1827”, Courtesy of the West Point Museum Collection, United States Military Academy, 2015
George Catlin (1796-1872) is best known as an American painter who specialized in depicting the North American Indian. Born in Pennsylvania, Catlin studied law and art and by 1826 lived in New York City to pursue a career in painting portraits. This oil painting of an artillery drill on the West Point Parade Grounds was completed a few years after Albert Martin attended the military academy in 1824. Like Albert, Catlin too left the east, moved to Missouri by 1830 and spent the rest of his professional life painting Native Americans and their way of life.
