The River Art of George Caleb Bingham

Thursday | February 20 | 6:00-7:00pm
Minnesota Marine Art Museum | 800 Riverview Dr
www.mmam.org

Gregory Schmidt will offer a presentation that focuses on George Caleb Bingham, one of the most respected and well-known American artists of the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Bingham was a transitional figure in American art history. Largely self-taught, this mid-westerner sought to place himself within the highest traditions of European and American art, but also aspired to create a uniquely American vision of the midwestern frontier and its people. He rose to fame in the 1840s on the strength of a series of “River Paintings” that depicted people whose livelihoods depended on the rivers of the Mississippi watershed. Most notable of these works were Fur Traders Descending the Missouri and The Jolly Flatboatmen, now considered two of the most iconic genre paintings in American art history. They will be examined in some detail in the presentation.

Minnesota Marine Art Museum is a member of the River Arts Alliance. To learn more about the benefits of membership, please visit: riverartsalliance.org/JOIN.