George Catlin 1835

John Wood Dodge painted this miniature portrait of George Catlin, most likely in the 1830s, on ivory. Catlin was well-known for his paintings of Native Americans in the American West and Dodge, who was from New York, made his living from portraiture. Miniature portraits like this were popular in the United States at this time, particularly amongst the middle classes. They democratized portraiture, making it more accessible to the general public. Although photography was soon to take over this function, this portrait gives us an insight into the democratization of art patronage in the 19th century. In order to understand more about the institutional and artistic context of this portrait we might look to period newspapers, artists’ biographies, and museum records to discover more about artistic movements and their patrons in that era. The meaning of art is always contingent on social and institutional context.