5857888 La Salle Taking Possession of the land at the Mouth of the Arkansas, March 10th 1682, 1847-48 (oil on canvas) by Catlin, George (1796-1872); 37.8x56.4 cm; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA; (add.info.: Lasalle erecting a cross and taking possession of the country at the mouth of Arkansas, March 10th, 1682. Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-87) French explorer and fur trader in North America, best known for this expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the whole river basin for Louis XIV and France.).