George Caleb Bingham
George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July
7, 1879) was an American realist artist, whose work depicts American
life in the frontier lands, along the Missouri River.
Born in Virginia, Bingham's family moved to Missouri
when he was eight years old. He apprenticed with a cabinet maker
and with a portrait artist, identified by some as Chester Harding.
He spent three months at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
but returned to Missouri, whose landscapes figured prominently in
his work.
From 1856 to 1859, Bingham studied art with the
members of the Düsseldorf School in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Critics claim that this caused him to abandon the rustic American
style in his art. Upon his return, he began painting less, turning
to politics in the post-Civil War years and serving as state treasurer
and adjutant general. Toward the end of his life he was professor
of art at the University of Missouri.
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