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American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
|
- Sale 6384
Live
| Philadelphia
Dec 7 | 1:00 PM EST
Live
| Philadelphia
Sale 6384
| Philadelphia
| Philadelphia
Estimate$40,000 – $60,000
Provenance:
The Artist.
By descent in the family.
Mr. L. Vernon Miller, wife of the artist's grandnephew.
The Peters Corporation, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Acquired directly from the above, 1980.
The John F. Eulich Collection of American Western Art, Dallas, Texas.
Sotheby's, New York, Sale of December 3, 1998, Lot 177.
Acquire directly from the above sale.
Private Collection.
Literature:
Rick Stewart, The American West: Legendary Artists of the Frontier, Dallas, 1986, p. 18; p. 19, illustrated.
Lot Note:
Baltimore painter, Alfred Jacob Miller, produced a compelling visual record of the western fur trade after receiving a significant 1837 commission from Captain William Drummond Stewart, a Scottish patron. Miller traveled with Stewart to the annual fur traders' rendezvous, a vital trade meeting in the Green River Valley of present-day Wyoming. This exchange, facilitated by the American Fur Company, brought together diverse groups, including American mountain men and members of several Native American nations such as the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Crow, allowing them to acquire necessary provisions in exchange for furs. Miller's observational "trail sketches" from the journey became the source material for numerous oil and watercolor paintings, notably a series of 200 oils and watercolors commissioned by William T. Walters in 1858.
These works, delivered with descriptive texts over the next two years, provide not only a detailed visual history but also a window into the prevailing 19th-century biases of the artist and explorer. Miller’s commentary on Schim-a-co-che describes him with equal parts admiration and prejudice, comparing his dignity to that of a "civilized gentleman" while juxtaposing the chief's distinction with "common Indians." The present lot, the creation of which coincides with Miller's output from his travels with Drummond, is part of an invaluable yet historically complex document of this period in the colonization and exploration of the American West.
Framed: 18 7/8 x 17 3/8 in.
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Adam Veil
VP, Head of Department, American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
