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Shooting Flamingoes
185719 x 26 1/2 in. (48.3 x 67.3 cm)
George Catlin
United States (Wilkes-Barre, PA, 1796 - 1872, Jersey City, NJ)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1941.25
Location: Not currently on view
Shooting Flamingoes is a shocking and confusing painting to 21st century sensibilities. To our eyes, the mass killing of the flamingoes is unthinkable, sensitive as we are to the role hunting has played in the extinction of many species over the past century and a half. To our eyes, the startled native guide is an offensive stereotype, a comic, cartoon-like character next to the upright, composed figure of the hunter.
In pre-Civil War America, George Catlin, a well-known artist of the period, was commissioned to create a nine-part series to glorify the Colt rifle. Shooting Flamingoes was one image in that advertising campaign. While the original intent of this painting doesn’t invalidate our contemporary reactions, it does set the piece within a historical context that explains its initial point-of-view.
[Gallery label text, 2004]
In pre-Civil War America, George Catlin, a well-known artist of the period, was commissioned to create a nine-part series to glorify the Colt rifle. Shooting Flamingoes was one image in that advertising campaign. While the original intent of this painting doesn’t invalidate our contemporary reactions, it does set the piece within a historical context that explains its initial point-of-view.
[Gallery label text, 2004]
Marks
Artist's signature, lower right: G. Catlin.1857. Original inscription, back of stretcher: View of Etretat/20 miles from Havre - /Geo. Catlin, Buenos Ayres. 1857
Provenance
Commissioned by Colt's Patent Firearms, Hartford, CT in 1857; Mrs. E.S. Cushman, Port Washington, NY; purchased by M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York in 1940; purchased from them by the Gallery in 1941
Keywords
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Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Romantic Painting in America Museum of Modern Art 11/15/1943 - 4/29/1945
- Eighty Eminent Painters of Connecticut Connecticut College 3/9/1947 - 4/20/1947
- Sport in Art Albright-Knox Art Gallery 1/23/1948 - 2/22/1948
- Sports and Games in Art 2/1/1953 - 2/28/1953
- Samuel Colt: Arms, Art and Invention Wadsworth Atheneum 5/5/2006 - 1/21/2007
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Title: Art a la Carte. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Volume Number: 33, Issue Number: 7. Issue Date: March 1968. Figure Number: 2
- Rochester Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester Handbook. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1961.
- Article Author: Moore, Gertrude H.. Article Title: Memorial Art Gallery Acquires Paintings Done by 19th Century Americans. Article Scope: Article. Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, NY: Rochester Print Co. Issue Date: November 23 1941.
- Art Digest. New York, NY: Art Digest, Inc.
- Carnegie Magazine. Pittsburgh, PA: The Carnegie Institute
- ARTnews. New York, New York: ARTnews Associates
- Article Author: Croughton, Amy H.. Article Title: Artists and Craftsmen. Article Scope: Mention. Rochester Times-Union. Rochester, New York, 1923-1963. Issue Date: Nov. 14, 1941.
- American Heritage Magazine. New York, New York
- Jean Lipman and Helen M. Franc. Bright Stars: American Painting and Sculpture Since 1776. New York, NY: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1976.
- George Catlin. Last Rambles Amongst the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes . London, England: S. Low, Son and Marston, 1868.
- Romantic Painting in America. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1943.
- Eighty Eminent Painters of Connecticut. New London, CT: Lyman Allyn Museum, 1947.
- The Magazine Antiques. New York, NY: Straight Enterprises Inc.
- Article Author: McGarvey, Kathleen. Article Title: Practicing the Art of Observation. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Rochester Review. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press Volume Number: 8-, Issue Number: 3. Issue Date: January-February 2008. Page Number: 14-18
- Grant Holcomb, III, ed. Voices in the Gallery: Writers on Art. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2001.
- William Heyen. Home: Autobiographies, etc.. Dubois, PA: Mammoth Books, 2005.
- Article Author: Brown, Peter Ogden. Article Title: George Catlin: Shooting Flamingoes. Article Scope: Chapter and reproduction. Marjorie B. Searl, ed. Seeing America: painting and sculpture from the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2006. Page Number: 58-60
- Article Author: Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin. Article Title: George Catlin and the Colt Firearms Series. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, ed. Samuel Colt: Arms, Art, and Invention. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. Page Number: 203-245, Figure Number: 13, p. 223
- Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Susanna Reich. Painting the Wild Frontier: The Art and Adventures of George Catlin. New York, NY: Clarion Books
- Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Marjorie Searl and Lu Harper. The Memorial Art Gallery: 100 Years. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2013.
Portfolio List
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This object is a member of the following portfolios:
Web Links
See links to web pages and lesson plans
Seeing America Inservice
Materials from a teacher in-service presentation Spring 2008
Seeing America
Chapter on George Catlin's Shooting Flamingoes, written by Peter Ogden Brown.
Ambush for Flamingoes
This companion painting is in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA