Lot 750
J** DANIELS (Circa 1840)
RED INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA TAKEN FROM LIFE AT MR CATLIN'S EXHIBITION
Bears inscription verso with title and further inscriptions A Sketch by Daniels and An Original Sketch/ By J Daniels of Liverpool, oil on board
30 x 22.5cm.
* Trained as a lawyer, Pennsylvania-born George Catlin (1796-1872) gave up his legal endeavours in order to pursue a career in art and, following an inspiring meeting with a tribal delegation of Plains Indians, Catlin was determined to honour their customs in his art. From 1832, he began to produce a vast collection of paintings and he also amassed some of the tribes' artifacts (including a 7m-high tepee) in order to bring his pictures to life. Catlin travelled to Europe in 1839 to show his so-called `Indian Gallery` in London, Brussels and Paris and was accompanied by some Indians, who were keen to see Europe and to be simultaneously honoured for their traditions. Catlin found that the nine Ojibwas and fourteen Iowan Indians drew larger crowds and they were even invited to Windsor Castle to perform ritual dances and show off their sporting prowess for Queen Victoria. In Paris, Charles Baudelaire was impressed to see that Catlin had captured the proud and noble spirit of the Indian race and, encouraged by the other eager responses of those who attended his exhibitions, Catlin tried to sell the collection of over 600 pictures en bloc to the US Government. However, failing to find an appetite amongst the Government officials for this vast archive of social history, Catlin was obliged to sell it to a collector to defray his mounting debts. It is now to be found, almost entirely complete, in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.
The artist J Daniels is not recorded. There is a slight similarity of palette (though not obviously of technique) with the celebrated Liverpool artist, Williams Daniels (1813-1880). It is conceivable that William Daniels, who led a rather reckless and bohemian life, might have been intrigued by the dignified and composed restraint of these visiting American Indians whose lifestyles were already familiar in English literature to readers of Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge and others. If it is by William Daniels, the date would place it amongst his earliest works as he did not exhibit his work before 1840.
