Mississippi Boatman
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 61.3 x 43.7 cm (24 1/8 x 17 3/16 in.) framed: 78.11 × 60.33 × 8.89 cm (30 3/4 × 23 3/4 × 3 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
John Wilmerding Collection
Accession Number
2004.66.1
Art Historical Context
George Caleb Bingham's *Mississippi Boatman* (1850) captures a solitary riverman at a moment of quiet reflection, embodying the spirit of mid-nineteenth-century American frontier life. During this era, the Mississippi River served as a vital artery for trade and westward expansion, with flatboatmen and keelboat operators playing essential roles in transporting goods and people. Bingham, often celebrated as the "Missouri Artist," specialized in genre scenes that documented these everyday figures with dignity and realism, elevating ordinary workers to symbols of national character. Painted in o...