National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Mississippi Boatman
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

George Caleb Bingham was one of America's first important painters to specialize in genre paintings, which depict scenes of everyday life. His early years were spent in Missouri, and he knew at first hand the life of the frontier, especially the comings and goings of the boatmen who ferried cargo on the great rivers of the Midwest. Bingham's paintings were intended for audiences in eastern cities such as New York and Philadelphia, and the boatmen he portrayed were already by the 1850s emblematic of the rough and tumble characters who were pushing American civilization ever farther westward. They were also considered disreputable characters who were fond of drunken carousing in the towns they passed while enroute downriver.

The men portrayed in Bingham's river pictures are usually young, but here we are presented with an older, scowling individual who looks out at us with undisguised ill humor. This solitary figure seems confrontational, even threatening, establishing a mood of unease that is unique in Bingham's work. Perhaps the nature of the narrative—an old man left to guard the cargo while his companions enjoy themselves in town—dictated he be depicted in this way. But Bingham, who was actively engaged in politics and who was staunchly antislavery, may have also intended the troubled visage of this boatman to be a mirror of the difficult times the nation was facing in the years leading to the Civil War.

Inscription

lower left: G.C. Bingham / 1850

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Art Union of Philadelphia, in 1851 (listed for sale, $60). found 1940s in Rhode Island by B.R. Leviss, Fall River, Massachusetts; (Vose Galleries, Boston); sold 1965 to John Wilmerding, then Cambridge, Massachusetts; gift 2004 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1851
Catalogue of Paintings Now on Exhibition in Our Free Gallery, Philadelphia Art Union, 1851, no. 51.
1967
George Caleb Bingham 1811-1879, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C.; Cleveland Museum of Art; The Art Galleries, University of California at Los Angeles, 1967-1968, no. 17.
1976
19th Century American Art, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976, no catalogue.
2004
American Masters from Bingham to Eakins. The John Wilmerding Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2004-2005, no. 1, repro.

Bibliography

1851
Letter from George Caleb Bingham to James S. Rollins, dated New York March 30 1851; Folder 16, James S. Rollins (1812-1888), Papers, 1546-1968 (C1026, microfilm); State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia.
1852
"Catalogue of Prizes to be Distributed on December 31, 1852." Philadelphia Art Union Reporter 1 (January 1851): no. 51.
1959
McDermott, John Francis. George Caleb Bingham River Portraitist. Norman, Oklahoma, 1959: 416, no. 58.
1967
Bloch, E. Maurice. George Caleb Bingham: The Evolution of an Artist and A Catalogue Raisonné. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967: 106-107, 169, 335/ 76 (A194), 238 (postscript).
1967
Wilmerding, John. "George Caleb Bingham: A New Find." Antiques 152, no. 4 (October 1967): 556-557, repro.
1975
Bloch, E. Maurice. The Drawings of George Caleb Bingham: With a Catalogue Raisonné. Columbia, Missouri, 1975: 119, pl. IX.
1986
Bloch, E. Maurice. The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham. Columbia, Missouri, 1986: repro. 82, 190, no. 225.
1991
Rash, Nancy. The Painting and Politics of George Caleb Bingham. New Haven and London, 1991: 246 note 67.
1999
Wilmerding, John. Compass and Clock: Defining Moments in American Culture. New York, 1999: 120-121, pl. 10.
2004
Kelly, Franklin. "George Caleb Bingham, Mississippi Boatman." Bulletin / National Gallery of Art, no. 32 (Fall 2004): 17, repro.

Related Works

Related Resources

  • Event Type
    Event Name
    March 1–June 1
    Mon, Tues, and Wed at 1:00
    March 5, 2012 at 2:00
    March 7, 2012 at 4:00
    East Building, Auditorium
    Name of docent
    image:
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum
    60 minutes
    Registration for this event begins on April 1, 2012 at noon.
    Register for this event
    Download the program notes (100k)
  • Self-Guided Tour
    Italian Collection
    image:
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum