# Dying Buffalo, Shot with an Arrow

**George Catlin** (born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872)  
1832-1833  
oil on canvas  
24 x 29 in. (60.9 x 73.7 cm)

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1985.66.407. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4039).

## About this work

“The American bison, or . . . buffalo, is the largest of the ruminating animals that is now living in America; and seems to have been spread over the plains of this vast country, by the Great Spirit, for the use and subsistence of the red men, who live almost exclusively on their flesh, and clothe themselves with their skins . . . The buffalo bull often grows to the enormous weight of 2000 pounds, and shakes a long and shaggy black mane, that falls in great profusion and confusion over his head and shoulders; and oftentimes falling down quite to the ground. The horns are short, but very large, and have but one turn, i.e. they are a simple arch, without the least approach to a spiral form, like those of the common ox, or of the goat species.” George Catlin made this sketch on the Upper Missouri in 1832. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 31, 1841; reprint 1973)

_Text from the Smithsonian American Art Museum._

George Catlin painted this in 1832-1833, aged about 36. It is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [George Catlin](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/george-catlin)

born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872

Catlin gave up the law to paint, first as a portraitist in Philadelphia, and from 1830 made a series of journeys west from St Louis to record the peoples of the Plains. On a steamboat trip up the Missouri in 1832 he painted hundreds of portraits and scenes of daily life and landscape. He toured his “Indian Gallery” through the eastern cities and Europe, and his illustrated books made these images widely known.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- The artist was about 36
- Real size: about 24 × 29 in (61 × 74 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 18 × 24 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Hunter, Animals, Occupations, Buffaloes
- Colour: olive
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1981.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1981/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/dying-buffalo-shot-with-an-arrow-si-saam-1985-66-407).