Analysis Of The Painting Fur Traders Descending The Missouri By George Caleb Bingham

Date Created: 1845

Provenance: It was created in Missouri in 1845; Bingham brought this piece to the public after returning from a leave of absence.

Location: It was put on display at the American Art-Union in 1845, but was put on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1932. Media: Oil on Canvas. It was painted in missouri, while Bingham was on a stay in Central Michigan during the winter.

Dimensions: 73. 7x92. 7cm

Description

In the center, there is two native Americans traveling down the Missouri River in a makeshift wood pirogue. A older male is paddling the pirogue, while a boy rests towards the center of the canoe. There is a black bear cub tied down to the front of the pirogue, perched on its hind legs looking outwards. A faded green tree line crosses the canvas, horizontally, across the river, behind the traders. Large, dead tree limbs stick out of the river behind the pirogue; this, along with the treeline, is adding to the natural setting.

The sun’s light angle from the left cast a hazy mist over the scene, giving a more accurate morning sense. The old trader has on a baggy red shirt, and the boy has on a baggy blue shirt. At the far right is the grizzled fur trader himself, with his pipe and stocking cap is paddling the pirogue downriver. The realistic white clouds are spread out over the atmosphere, and are partially covered by the misty haze.

Analysis

The hazy mist over the scene was used by Bingham to create the distance of the background. The artist uses horizontal, wave like lines to give the water an illusion of flowing down river past the pirogue. A light from the sun, not seen in the painting, puts emphasis on the characters.

The geometric shapes are the pirogue and the triangular hat on the man; also a triangular rock protruding from the water. The old fur trader is holding an oar in the water and steering the pirogue, this gives him the sense of being a leader. The relaxed pose of the boy crouched over the cargo implies that he is comfortable and knows the old man fairly well. The water in front of the boat was painted to give a reflective quality, as natural water would do.

George Caleb Bingham’s Fur Traders Descending the Missouri is one of the finest examples of luminist classicism – the ripples in the water extending parallel horizontal accents and stepping planar distinctions back in space.

Interpretation

The painting depicts a lifestyle unique to the Native Americans at that time, and it gives cultural background.