George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879) was the first major American artist to be based west of the Mississippi River. He would pursue the duel careers of artist and politician, serving in elected positions for four decades. His family moved from Virginia—where Bingham was born—to the Missouri Territory in 1819, several years before it became a state. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, Missouri remained at the edge of the American frontier, a departure point for explorers, adventurers, and pioneers heading west. Largely self-taught, Bingham relied on drawing manuals rather than formal academic study for instruction. He began his career as an itinerant portrait painter, traveling to counties along the Missouri River portraying middle-class citizens.

 

Following this early period, Bingham focused his paintings on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, celebrating their critically important role as major arteries of transportation and agents of cultural and economic change for the country. He also identified and codified a wide variety of Western character types—boatman, card player, dockhand, fiddler, fur trader, raftman, and weary traveler, among others—and brought them to national attention. Through his paintings, he promoted romantic evocations of the West to a primarily urban, eastern audience.

Biographical information from the exhibition
Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River
Metropolitan Museum of Art
2015