Fur traders on Missouri
1845
Oil painting on canvas (74x92 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Oil painting on canvas (74x92 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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We find ourselves catapulted into a foggy and peaceful atmosphere, where two hunters in the company of their cat glide over the calm waters of Missouri. The image is pervaded by an unreal light that creates a dreamlike and timeless sensation.
In his early works, Bingham was very careful to balance horizontal and diagonal lines, inserting figures at right angles to create a pleasantly solid structure.
George Caleb Bingham was one of the most important painters of the early movement of the North American Frontier Painter, and in his art he represented the landscapes and settlers of the American West with great skill.
The camera, in those days, was not yet widespread and it remained the artist's task to tell the rest of the world the beauties of this strange and new land.
Gradually Bingham shifted his fondness for river scenes inland and held back his production for politics (he was elected in Missouri in 1848). However, he is remembered as a popular chronicler of the life of old America, as well as a skilled and sophisticated painter.
Comparing artists: Allston, Bierstadt, Cole, Friedrich
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