Studio of George Caleb Bingham

Although he was born in Augusta County, Virginia, George Caleb Bingham eventually became famous for his idyllic scenes depicting everyday life in Missouri. Bingham’s family moved to the Missouri area around 1818 and by 1835 the artist had made a name for himself as a self-taught portrait painter. His success afforded him the opportunity to travel east to study in Philadelphia and New York in 1838. In 1845 he began producing a series of paintings featuring life on the Missouri River, often depicting boatmen. That same year the artist sent two of his western paintings to the American Art-Union Exhibition in New York. Bingham was a member of the Whig party and became involved in local Missouri politics beginning in the 1840s. He was inspired to create another series of paintings, this time dealing with frontier political life. Bingham traveled farther west later in his life, visiting Colorado in 1872, just a few years before his death in 1879.