Mid 19th.Century Natural History Watercolour The North American Buffalo

In the nineteenth century, American bison (commonly called the buffalo) thundered across the Great Plains of the American West in their millions. They symbolized the abundance of the land, wild and majestic, revered and hunted, buffalo have long captured the American imagination.

Catlin was among the earliest artists of European descent to travel beyond the Mississippi River, and in the 1830s he journeyed west five times to record, as he called it, the ​“manners and customs” of Native cultures, painting scenes and portraits from life. His ambitious project was largely fuelled by the fear that American Indians, the great buffalo herds, and a way of life would one day vanish. With a population in excess of 60 million in the late 18th century, the species was systematically culled down to just 541 animals by 1889. Recovery efforts expanded in the mid-20th century with a current population now standing at around 15,000.