# George Catlin artist context and auction value notes Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/george-catlin/ Profile generated: 2026-05-03T02:29:26.605Z Quality: high confidence, strong sources ## Artist identity - Birth date: 1796-07-26 - Death date: 1872-12-23 - Nationality: American - Movements: American Ethnographic Portraiture - Common media: Oil painting, Watercolor, Engraving, Lithography, Miniature painting ## About George Catlin George Catlin (1796–1872) was an American painter, author, and traveler whose work forms one of the most extensive visual records of Native American life on the nineteenth-century frontier. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Catlin trained as a lawyer before turning to art. Between 1830 and 1836 he made five extended journeys through the American West, visiting dozens of Plains tribes and producing hundreds of portraits, ceremonial scenes, and landscapes that he collectively called his Indian Gallery. He exhibited these works widely in the United States and Europe, accompanied by lectures and publications, including his influential two-volume Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians (1841). Catlin's paintings are held by major institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery of Art. His documentation of indigenous cultures at a time of rapid displacement gives his oeuvre lasting ethnographic as well as artistic significance. ## Common works and media Catlin is best known for oil-on-canvas or oil-on-board portraits of individual Native American sitters, often identified by name and tribal affiliation. He also painted group scenes depicting buffalo hunts, dances, and council meetings. Watercolor drawings and field sketches from his western travels circulate less frequently. Engravings and lithographs — including plates from his published books and portfolios — are the most commonly encountered medium on the secondary market. Miniature paintings from his early career are documented but rare at auction. ## Market and appraisal context George Catlin's secondary market spans 35 years of recorded auction activity (1991–2026) with 326 catalogued lots, 220 of which have published realized prices. The market is anchored by a handful of high-value original oil portraits — the top recorded price reaching $17.37 million — but the vast majority of lots that appear at auction are reproductive prints, hand-colored lithographs, and chromolithographs from Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio and later editions. The interquartile range of $220–$1,500 reflects this print-heavy composition. Recent liquidity is stable: 20 priced lots in the trailing twelve months versus 21 in the prior period, indicating consistent but modest turnover. Sotheby's heads the list of observed houses, but most recent activity runs through regional and specialist firms including Kiechel Auction, Nadeau's Auction Gallery, Jackson Hole Art Auction, Santa Fe Art Auction, and North American Auction Company, all of which frequently feature Catlin prints in Western and Native American art sales. Original oil paintings surface rarely; when they do, they typically appear at the major houses (Sotheby's, Bonhams) and trade at materially different price levels from the print market. ## Auction-house-backed market evidence George Catlin's secondary market spans 35 years of recorded auction activity (1991–2026) with 326 catalogued lots, 220 of which have published realized prices. The market is anchored by a handful of high-value original oil portraits — the top recorded price reaching $17.37 million — but the vast majority of lots that appear at auction are reproductive prints, hand-colored lithographs, and chromolithographs from Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio and later editions. The interquartile range of $220–$1,500 reflects this print-heavy composition. Recent liquidity is stable: 20 priced lots in the trailing twelve months versus 21 in the prior period, indicating consistent but modest turnover. Sotheby's heads the list of observed houses, but most recent activity runs through regional and specialist firms including Kiechel Auction, Nadeau's Auction Gallery, Jackson Hole Art Auction, Santa Fe Art Auction, and North American Auction Company, all of which frequently feature Catlin prints in Western and Native American art sales. Original oil paintings surface rarely; when they do, they typically appear at the major houses (Sotheby's, Bonhams) and trade at materially different price levels from the print market. ### Appraisal notes Appraisily would use these 326 auction records as a comparable-sales baseline, then layer in specifics from the object itself: photographs showing medium, substrate, dimensions, and signature; a condition report noting any foxing, toning, creasing, tears, or restoration; provenance documentation tracing ownership history; and edition details for prints (plate number, hand-coloring status, publisher imprint, paper type). For original oils, attribution verification against known museum holdings and published catalogues is essential, as Catlin's workshop produced variants and his images were widely re-engraved. The wide price dispersion — $15 to $17.37 million — means that a single comparable sale is never sufficient; the appraiser must match medium, period, subject significance, and condition grade to the appropriate segment of the record set. Recent comparable lots at Kiechel Auction and Nadeau's provide a useful benchmark for the print market, while the much thinner set of major-house oil sales serves the high end. ### Valuation factors - Medium: original oil-on-canvas or oil-on-board portraits from the 1830s Indian Gallery era command the highest values; hand-colored lithographs from the North American Indian Portfolio trade in the mid-hundreds to low thousands; later chromolithographs and restrikes are at the lower end - Subject significance: portraits of named tribal leaders (e.g., Wi-Jun-Jon, Flathead Indian) and documented ceremonial scenes carry stronger collector interest than generic landscapes or later South American subjects - Attribution: many circulating works are prints after Catlin rather than by Catlin himself; workshop variants, period copies, and posthumous restrikes all appear in the market and require careful cataloguing - Provenance: a documented chain of ownership through known collections or institutions substantially increases value and buyer confidence, especially for original paintings - Condition: given the age of works (1830s–1870s), foxing, toning, fading of hand-coloring, margin trimming, and any restoration are material factors that can significantly affect price - Edition and plate details: for prints, the specific plate number, presence of original hand-coloring, publisher imprint (Day & Haghe), and paper size distinguish premium impressions from later reissues - Market segment: prints sell primarily at regional Western art auction houses with estimates in the hundreds to low thousands; original oils are consigned to Sotheby's or Bonhams and trade at fundamentally different price levels ### Collector notes ### Market caveats - The $17.37 million maximum price is an extreme outlier driven by a major original oil painting; the median price of $550 and interquartile range of $220–$1,500 are far more representative of the typical lot encountered at auction - Of 326 catalogued lots, only 220 have published realized prices; unsold lots and buy-in results are excluded from price-distribution statistics, which may inflate median figures - Catlin produced hundreds of paintings and supervised many reproductive print editions over decades; buyers should distinguish between original period works, authorized contemporary prints, later restrikes, and copies by other hands - The recent 12-month lot count of 20 is stable but low relative to more widely traded American artists; comparable selection should prioritize medium and subject match over recency - Attribution for works catalogued at regional auction houses may not reflect the same level of scholarly vetting applied at Sotheby's or Bonhams; independent authentication is advisable before significant purchase commitments - Some low-price lots (e.g., $15, $20, $35) appear to be books or modern reproduction portfolios rather than period artworks; these should not be used as comparables for original prints or paintings ### Market evidence sources - undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/george-catlin/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-george-catlin-wild-horses-at-play-65-c-81f6d58e4c - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-george-catlin-american-1796-1872-wi-jun-jon-an-assiniboine-chief-plate-25-hand-colored-lithograph-from-north-american-indian-portfolio-depicting-the-chief-before-and-after-his-visit-to-washington-d-c-published-231-c-7ce68127c2 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-george-catlin-1796-1872-wounded-buffalo-bull-197-c-90e76b169b - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-george-catlin-1796-1872-flathead-indian-26-c-fdb401f866 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-george-catlin-1794-1872-ostrich-chase-buenos-aires-19-1-4-x-26-3-4-in-framed-24-x-31-1-2-in-74-c-8b145c8b57 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-george-catlin-group-of-three-chromolithographs-ca-1880-1913-24-c-44786ae0ae - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-wild-horses-lithograph-by-george-catlin-438-c-ff440c0870 ## Appraisily data basis Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from library authority files, museum records, and scholarly references with auction-house sale records, lot descriptions, realized prices, and comparable market data when available. The information presented here draws on sources including the Library of Congress Name Authority File, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, the Museum of Modern Art, and Wikidata, supplemented by Appraisily's internal auction database. ## Sources - Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50035819 - Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q455133 - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Catlin - RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/15949 - The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/63108 - VIAF / OCLC: https://viaf.org/viaf/88688790/ - Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500004854