Beschreibung:

CATLIN, George (1796-1872). Autograph letter signed ("Geo. Catlin") to "My Dear Harvey," probably George Harvey Ostende, 20 November 1864. 4 pages, 8 o, some light soiling along folds. CATLIN ON THE TERMS FOR THE SALE OF HIS NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN COLLECTION TO NAPOLEON III "...THE WORKS OF MY TOILSOME LIFE THUS TREASURED UP AND PROTECTED FOR THE WORLD TO GAZE AT AFTER I AM OFF...." Catlin writes a detailed letter about his work, most likely to George Harvey the American artist and one of Catlin's most loyal friends. Harvey arranged for the exhibition of Catlin's paintings in New York in 1870 when he returned after 30 years abroad. Harvey also wrote the appreciation of Catlin which appeared in the New York Evening Post the day after Catlin died on 24 December 1872. Catlin writes that he is "in the same hermitage, and laboring away upon my sketches and notes." He mentions that he's received an inquiry from Paris about the possible acquisition of his collection: "This plan started without my knowledge...in Paris, by Monsieur Mérimée, a member of Deputies, & Marshall Vaillant, Minister of the Emperor's household, as you see, and, as you will say, 'all the better.' The gentleman who wrote the letter came expressly from Paris & spent a day with me to get my terms, inventory, &c of my collection & has returned to Paris, to make his 'Rapport.' I have furnished the following items--to make them short--for 50,000 dollars I will agree to sell my entire collection of North Amn Indian paintings and Indian manufactures, as exhibited in Paris...together with my collection made west of the Rocky Mountains in 1856 & 1857. I will agree to proceed immediately to N. York and take my collections all to Paris, spend one entire year in finishing up the paintings and arranging them, the govt--engaging to have ready at that time, a hall sufficiently large to show to advantage the whole collection...the said hall--to perpetuate the collection under the title of Catlin's N. Amn. Indian Collection and the 50,000 dols. to be paid when the collection is finished and engraved. What may grow out of this I cant tell--it may, possibly , result in the sale of my collection, though so unlike my luck, that I don't believe it--yet, 'stranger things have happened.' If it should so happen, none can better appreciate than yourself, the satisfaction I should feel in seeing the works of my toilsome life thus treasured up and protected for the world to gaze at after I am off,--and the satisfaction it would afford me of being elevated for a little time, just at the end of my life, above the atmosphere of thieves and blackguards. These gentlemen are setting a high value on my works, but I have not a particle of faith in the Emperor . The plan is so far in secrecy, not a soul here knowing anything of it, and I wish you, at present , to keep it close." An interesting comment about the 1864 Presidential election follows: "I have been so anxiously awaiting news from N. York, and which we ought to have recd yesterday or today, that I am almost too nervouse to write--I am imagining bloodshed & fires in the Northern cities, at the time of the Election & I shall be thankful to Heaven if it has been avoided." As early as 1826 Catlin had told George Harvey that it was "the ambition of his life to become the historian and limner of the aborigines of the vast continent of North America" (quoted in Donaldson, "The George Catlin Indian Gallery," in Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1885 , 5:175). Harvey's notice in the New York Evening Post upon Catlin's death pleads specifically for the establishment of a permanent residence for Catlin's collection, and to satisfy Catlin's ultimate goal that it be purchased by the nation. Catlin's numerous applications to Congress towards this end were unfulfilled. His rivals, along with poor investments and dept, put Catlin in a downward spiral, which included a brief stay on debtor's prison. He had lost his Indian Gallery to cre