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Beautiful Clay Bluffs, 1900 Miles above St. Louis
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
“These curious bluffs must be seen as they are in nature; or else in a painting, where their colours are faithfully given, or they lose their picturesque beauty, which consists in the variety of their vivid tints. The strata of clay are alternating from red to yellow---white---brown and dark blue; and so curiously arranged, as to form the most pleasing and singular effects.” George Catlin painted this scene during a voyage along the Missouri River in 1832. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 10, 1841; reprint 1973)
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineBeautiful Clay Bluffs, 1900 Miles above St. Louis. 1832. George Catlin, born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.. CC0.
