George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an American
realist artist, whose work depicts American life in the frontier lands along the
Missouri River. George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an
American realist artist, whose work depicts American life in the frontier lands
along the Missouri River.
George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an
American realist artist, whose work depicts American life in the frontier lands
along the Missouri River. Left to languish in obscurity, George's work was
rediscovered in the 1930s and he is now widely considered one of the greatest
American painters of the 1800s.
Born in Augusta County, Virginia , George was the second of seven children born
to Henry Vest Bingham and Mary Amend. Upon their marriage, Matthias Amend,
Mary's father, gave ownership to the family mill, 1,180 acres of land and
several slaves to Henry with the agreement that Matthias could live with the
family the rest of his life. Henry offered the land and mill as surety for a
friend's debt and, when the friend died in 1818, all was lost. George's family
soon moved to Franklin, Missouri "where the land was said to be bountiful,
fertile and cheap."[
George was a self-taught artist. His sole childhood exposure to the field was as
a nine-year-old boy, when famed American portraitist Chester Harding visited
Franklin looking for business, having recently sketched Daniel Boone in Warren
County, Missouri. George assisted Harding during his brief stay, an experience
that left a powerful impression.
Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap, oil on canvas,
1851–52
In 1823, George's father, now judge of Howard County Court, died of malaria
on December 26 at the age of thirty-eight. To keep the family going, Mary
Bingham opened a school for girls and George, then twelve, worked as school
janitor to help keep the family afloat. At age sixteen, George apprenticed with
cabinet maker Jesse Green. After Green moved, he apprenticed with another
cabinet maker, Justinian Williams. Both tradesmen were Methodist ministers and,
while under their tutelage, George studied religious texts, preached at camp
meetings and thought about becoming a minister himself. George also considered
becoming a lawyer.
However, by age nineteen, George was painting portraits for $20.00 a piece,
often completing the works in a single day. He drummed up work in both Franklin
and Arrow Rock and, while his painting abilities were still developing,
succeeded in impressing his patrons with his strong draftsmanship and ability to
capture the likeness of his subject. Soon George attempted to travel to St.
Louis to ply his trade but contracted measles, which left him weak and
permanently bald.
In 1836, George married Sarah Elizabeth Hutchison, who bore him three children
over the subsequent twelve years before dying at the age of twenty-nine. George
married twice more, first to Eliza Thomas, who died in a mental institution in
1876, and then to Martha Lykins, who lived until 1890. George's mother, Mary,
died in 1851.
By 1838, George was already beginning to make a name for himself as a portrait
artist in St. Louis, his studio visited by several prominent local citizens and
statesmen, including the lawyer James S. Rollins who was to become a life-long
friend. To further his education, George spent three months in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania before continuing on to New York City to visit the National Academy
of Design exhibition.
George was elected to the Missouri General Assembly in 1848.
From 1856 to 1859, Bingham studied art with the members of the Düsseldorf School
in Düsseldorf, Germany. Critics claim that this caused him to abandon the rustic
American style in his art. Upon his return, he began painting less, turning to
politics in the post-Civil War years and serving as state treasurer and adjutant
general. He was also president of the Board of Police Commissioners for Kansas
City, Missouri in 1874, appointing the first chief of police there [1]. Toward
the end of his life he was a professor of art at the University of Missouri in
Columbia, Missouri.
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri
Fur traders on Missouri River, c. 1845.This is one of Bingham's most famous
paintings, now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Painted
around 1845 in the style called luminism by some historians of American art, it
was originally entitled, "French-Trader, Half-breed Son". The American Art Union
thought the title potentially controversial and renamed it. The painting is
haunting for its evocation of a bygone era in American history -- note, in
particular, the liberty cap worn by the old man. The animal on the prow has
never been identified; some prefer wolf, cat, or dog.
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