Chapter 1 : Alfred Jacob Miller - Wikipedia Fur Traders and Rendezvous: The Alfred Jacob Miller Online Catalogue is the most extensive online collection of Miller's paintings from his trip west. An Artist and the Fur Trade: November 13, In April, a distinguished gentleman entered the newly opened studio of a young artist at 26 Chartres Street in New Orleans. Their destination was the rendezvous of Miller and Stewart traveled as part of a caravan led by Tom Fitzpatrick, mountain man and proprietor of the American Fur Company. Fitzpatrick guided the expedition across the Great Plains generally following the courses of the Kansas, Platte, North Platte and Sweetwater rivers. The caravan also included hired menâ perhaps nine of whom were other Stewart employees, extra horses and a contingent of Delaware Indians whose role included hunting bison for food along the way. He documented all aspects of the hunt, the kill and roasting the meat over the campfire. No fashion in New York or London, however, could top the fashionâ or the societyâ of the buckskin- and fur-clad mountain men who hunted and trapped in the Rocky Mountains from the s to the s. At the rendezvous of, the most famous mountain man of all, Jim Bridger, donned a suit of armor, a gift from William Drummond Stewart. The Snake Indiansâ the Shoshoneâ created their own sensation with a spectacle Miller said was staged in honor of their old friend Stewart. The Shoshone nation was at its height, and every detail of feather, claw, fringe and vermillion-painted skin proclaimed their greatness. As many as 2, Indians camped in the broad green valley. On this excursion Miller documented the prominent features of the Wind River Mountainsâ sawtooth ridges, classic pointed peaks and valleys with glacial lakes in the foreground. This was a time of fascination and wandering, with the young Miller absorbing European tastes and identifying himself with the sweep of Western civilization. His training in Paris and Rome prepared him well. Miller completed more than field sketches in pencil and watercolor. Stewart was a veteran of four previous rendezvous and the Napoleonic Wars. Stewart asked Miller to create a series of full-sized oil paintings for the walls of Murthly Castle, which lies on the edge of the Scottish highlands near the city of Perth. The campfires of the Rocky Mountains provided Stewart with tales he would tell by the hearth-fires of Scottish manor houses. Perhaps he had had enough of the hard lifeâ struggling to keep up with camp chores, caring for the needs of a horse, and contending with the weather, hardships and dangers along the trailâ with no letup of the pressure to produce drawings and water-color sketches with great haste at moments snatched from each day. Perhaps too he was eager to translate the raw material of his adventure into finished paintings that would not only impress Stewart but also draw the attention of art critics and a wider audience. In fact, his work was lauded at a major exhibition in New York before being shipped to Scotland. Alfred Jacob Miller never returned to the Wind River country nor witnessed another rendezvous. He never married or had children. His earliest paintings and sketches are a primary resource for details of dress and gear that only Miller can provide. Miller drafted his accompanying notes with the satisfaction of one who had emerged from his travails, a touch of bravado marking his tone, and lines of classical poetry punctuating his observations. Graff and his extended family. Across the Wide Missouri. University of Oklahoma Press, Artist on the Oregon Trail. Amon Carter Museum, University of Wyoming Publications, For Further Reading Benemann, William. University of Nebraska Press, The rest of the Miller paintings in the article and the photo gallery are from the collections of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore available online. She has published more than 50 poems, essays, and short stories in journals and anthologies and is a writer and editor for the University of Wyoming Extension and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Page 1
Chapter 2 : Encyclopedia of the Great Plains MILLER, ALFRED JACOB () Alfred Jacob Miller (January 2, - June 26, ) was an American artist best known for his paintings of trappers and Native Americans in the fur trade of the western United States. Following study in Paris and Rome in, the young Miller returned to Baltimore and established a studio. After his parents died, Miller left Baltimore and moved to New Orleans in the spring of That is where he met Capt. William Drummond Stewart, the second son of Scottish nobility, veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, sportsman, and a seasoned traveler who had attended the annual rendezvous of fur trappers and traders in the Rocky Mountains on several occasions. Stewart planned to attend the rendezvous and, thinking that it might be his last, employed young Miller to document the trip. Miller arrived in St. Louis in April There he visited with Gov. Stewart and Miller left Westport in May, along with fortyfive men and twenty carts loaded with trade goods to exchange for pelts at the rendezvous. Miller remained at the rendezvous for about three weeks. Following another couple of weeks hunting in the mountains with Stewart, Miller returned to New Orleans to begin working on the paintings that Stewart had commissioned. Stewart, meanwhile, had learned that his older brother John had died, that he had inherited the family estates and titles, and that he must soon return to Murthly Castle, the family estate just outside of Perth, Scotland. Miller had made dozens of sketches. From them he first prepared a small album of eighty-seven wash and watercolor sketches for Stewart and then set to work on several large oil paintings that Stewart intended as decoration for Murthly. He returned to Baltimore in the spring of and spent the remainder of his life there. The trip was the only western journey that Miller made, but he kept his field sketches and continued to fulfill commissions from them throughout his life. The most notable commission was that of William T. Walters, who ordered watercolors from to Miller also sold several paintings to Charles Wilkins Weber that were chromo-lithographed for his books, The Hunter-Naturalist: Wild Scenes and Song-Birds. Miller saw the West through the lens of the romantic artist, depicting the many Indians at the rendezvous as noble savages and the Plains and mountains as a garden. He died in Baltimore on June 26, Watercolors of the American West. Gerald Peters Gallery, Artist on the Oregon Trail. Amon Carter Museum, Page 2
Chapter 3 : Alfred Jacob Miller - Artist, Fine Art Prices, Auction Records for Alfred Jacob Miller Thrill your walls now with a stunning Alfred Jacob Miller print from the world's largest art gallery. Choose from thousands of Alfred Jacob Miller artworks with the option to print on canvas, acrylic, wood or museum quality paper. September 25, 0 0 0 0 Following the artist years after his birth, from Independence, Missouri, to Daniel, Wyoming. Alfred Jacob Miller was 27 years old when Scotsman Capt. William Drummond Stewart visited his Baltimore studio in Stewart thought his upcoming journey into the American West might be his last. He wanted an artist who could travel with him and record the scenes they would see together. With strong support from his family and wealthy residents of Baltimore, Miller had freedom to work on his art unhindered with the concern about how to pay his bills. He had traveled to France and Italy in, where he viewedâ and in some cases copiedâ paintings by Old Masters. He was already adept at sketches and portraiture, and had moved on to painting landscapes by the time Stewart met him. While most of the fur trade journeys originated in St. Louis, Stewart and Miller jumped off from Independence. The route they took would later be used by travelers to Oregon Country over the Oregon Trail. The National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri, offers exhibits related to even earlier Western explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, plus details about the rise in beaver trapping and the fur trade, and about overland emigrant travel. Situated north of Kentucky Road on River Road in Independence, the Wayne City Landing also called Independence Landing saw thousands of emigrants embark on their own journeys west on the trails to Oregon and California. Here, too, tons of goods were unloaded from steamboats and transferred to wagons for transport over the Santa Fe Trail. Among his many adventures, he, in, guided Marcus and Narcissa Whitman as far as the Green River Rendez-vous, during part of their trip to Oregon. Miller featured Harris and another trapper fleeing on horseback from the Indians in a painting of his titled Escape from Blackfeet, commissioned by William Walters in and housed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. He was of wiry form, made up of bone and muscle, with a face apparently composed of tan leather and whip cord, finished off with a peculiar blue-black tint, as if gunpowder had been burnt into his face. To get to this part of the country from Independence, you should drive west on Interstate 70 through Kansas City, cross the Missouri River and head to Topeka, Kansas. Then turn north on U. An earth lodge dating to the s is a focal point here. This museum shares the stories and culture of the Pawnee Indian Nation that dominated the central plains long before Miller ventured into the area. Its interpretive trail weaves through the area that once held more earth lodges. He also left behind stunning portraits of American Indians: You can get there from Republic by backtracking to U. The collections range from small items, such as matchbooks or pens, to train engines, airplanes and wagons. The buildings are packed with artifacts and memorabilia that take you on a trip through time from the period when Miller would have been in the region to more recent days. Not established until more than a decade after Miller and Stewart were here, Fort Kearny became one of the most important trail outposts, serving people who had jumped off from many towns along the Missouri River. When you stop in Kearney, be sure to visit the Great Platte River Road Archway, which pays tribute to traders, trappers and adventurers like Miller who made their way to annual rendezvous. Heading toward Scotts Bluff, you could drive along Interstate I recommend taking U. To my mind, this slower route is better because you will drive through the towns along the route: Lexington, Gothenburg, North Platte, Ogallala and more, rather than zipping past on a mile-per-hour highway. West of Ogallala, take U. This route is parallel toâ in some places overlaysâ the Oregon Trail and provides access to trail sites such as Ash Hollow, Courthouse Rock and Chimney Rock, arguably the most famous landmark on the Platte, and one that Miller was the first to portray when he sketched it in Of more import to Miller though may have been the geologic formation farther west: He could no longer ride a horse by the time they were in present-day eastern Wyoming, and he was near death when the party reached the major rock outcrop. Here, they abandoned Scott, who soon died. At the time Miller was in the area, Fort Laramie did not exist, but the artist stopped at Fort William, operated by the American Fur Company, which he sketched. Later he used that drawing to paint a view of what he imagined Fort Laramie the post that replaced Fort William to be. Army purchased it in A visit to Fort Laramie will help you get a sense of the Page 3
important historical periods that affected this area: Indians, Mountain Men, overland emigrants and the frontier military. Although the post was not yet named to memorialize Jacque Laramee, who had been killed in the area in, some geological landmarks had been named for the French-Canadian fur trapper. The original painting is owned and displayed by the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana and as a side trip, I can enthusiastically endorse a visit to that institution. The common element in the paintings Miller eventually created following his travels with Stewart is a white horse; Stewart had ridden one during their expedition together. This trademark horse is placed in almost every piece of art Miller developed as a result of the journey to the mountain rendezvous. The horse is in the background of Trappers Bride part of a series of paintings, but is prominent in The Thirsty Trapper, which is in the collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Clearly the immense vistas, wide open spaces and the grandeur of the West affected Miller. The landscapes he painted following his journey with Stewart show that vastness with big, colorful skies, layers of mountains and people or animals that are small, almost insignificant, as though they are barely specks in the landscape. The Mountain Manâ trapperâ images Miller created are outstanding, and often seen. They have been used to illustrate books and magazines, and in exhibitions about the fur trade. Some are stunning portraits; others, almost cartoon-like a pack mule kicking supplies hither and fro as it follows a trade caravan, or a man racing from a charging bear. Here, too, he uses the white horse as an element in his paintings, such as In the Rocky Mountains, where the horse drinks while standing in a lake of water as men cook a meal over their campfire. Also at the Joslyn is A Trapper in His Solitary Camp, where the rangy horse used by the trapper dominates the center of the image. That he so successfully captured the images of the Mountain Menâ including their gear, clothing, weapons and horsesâ is due to the fact that Miller saw these trappers and traders firsthand. He did not need to research what their appearance would have been because he took part in the rendezvous itself. That makes works like his Pierre so striking, especially as the trapper and his donkey are predominant, while the camp for other traders or Indian participants at the rendezvous is a subtle component of the background. Then turn north at Muddy Gap onto U. At Farson, Wyoming, turn north on U. A visit to the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale provides information and artifacts related to these rendezvous. The best time to come to this region is in mid-july, for the re-enactment of the Green River Rendezvous. He worked in a combination of media: Fully capturing the experiences he had with William Drummond Stewart, Miller painted or sketched landscapes and wildlife like those featured in Stampede of Wild Horses and Elk Taking the Water. Because Miller was a master at recycling, you will often see very similar images in different institutions. Each will be an original with subtle differences that those of you with a discerning eye will notice. What do you think? Page 4
Chapter 4 : An Artist and the Fur Trade: the Wyoming Paintings of Alfred Jacob Miller racedaydvl.com Alfred Jacob Miller had begun painting at a young age and was fortunate that his father was a successful, well-connected business owner. In the early years of America's nationhood, any artist with promise was encouraged to seek training in Europe. Site Search Alfred Jacob Miller: He is, none-the-less, a very important figure in our study of the Mountain Men, for he was one of the foremost artists of the Far West during the period. A single trip to the mountains in resulted in at least finished works, including portraits of Indians and Mountain Men, as well as scenes from everyday life in the wilderness. The image to the right is a self portrait done sometime between when he was in his late forties or early fifties. Miller was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 2, Early in his life he showed an aptitude for drawing. As a student, his schoolmaster would call him up "to destroy any caricatures Miller had drawn on his schoolwork. Miller followed his interests in art and he received some early training in Baltimore. In, Godfrey T. Vigne, an English visitor to Baltimore specifically mentions Miller as a promising artist. With the encouragement and perhaps support of his family, Miller traveled to Europe in to pursue his training in art. He spent considerable time in Paris, but also traveled to Bologna and Venice and possibly to Switzerland. By Miller had returned to Baltimore where he optimistically opened a studio. Little is known of his activities from this time, but it is probable that he was not successful because he is known to have illustrated sheet music for his landlord, possibly to pay rent. A few days later, this same individual, who introduced himself as William Drummond Stewart, returned to the studio with a substantive offer for Miller. Stewart informed Miller that he would be making an extended trip to the Rocky Mountains, and that he wished to have a competent artist accompany him to record the scenery and incidents of the journey. Captain William Drummond Stewart was an eccentric Scotsman, a military officer, wealthy, and heir apparent to a large estate in Scotland. Stewart had already made several trips to the far west and in believed it would be his last such trip in fact his last trip would be made in, but Miller would not accompany him on the subsequent trip. The purpose of these trips was primarily for big game hunting. By late, Miller was back in New Orleans where he commenced working up his sketches and drawings. Miller would remain here for over one year, completing his paintings. After completing his work for Stewart, Miller traveled to London, where he remained for another year, finally returning to Baltimore in April, Here he established himself as a successful portrait artist. He also continued to duplicate his Far West works for local collectors. Alfred Jacob Miller died June 26, For more information about Alfred Jacob Miller: Published by the University of Oklahoma Press, The watercolor illustrations in this book provide an excellent window into life in the Rocky Mountain West in As well as numerous portraits of Indians and Mountain Men, Miller portrays aspects of everyday life from butchering a buffalo, to setting traps, to evening campfire. The portraits have incredible detail regarding clothing, decorations and accoutrements. The broader scale drawings have a "mistiness" about them that obscures details of dress and equipment. Even still, these are valuable for details portrayed, such as wedge tents and type of wagons used. Chapter 5 : Alfred Jacob Miller Bob (From the City) Visits His Country Cousin: Title: Period: Accession. Chapter 6 : Artworks Fur Traders and Rendezvous: The Alfred Jacob Miller Online Catalogue Alfred Jacob Miller: Alfred Jacob Miller was not a Mountain Man, nor was he involved with the fur trade. He is, none-the-less, a very important figure in our study of the Mountain Men, for he was one of the foremost artists of the Far West during the period. Chapter 7 : The Art of Alfred Jacob Miller Page 5
Alfred Jacob Miller, born in Baltimore on January 2,, to George Washington Miller and Harriet Jacob, was one of the earliest trained artists to cross the Great Plains. Following study in Paris and Rome in, the young Miller returned to Baltimore and established a studio. Chapter 8 : Trailing Alfred Jacob Miller in the West - True West Magazine Find great deals on ebay for alfred jacob miller. Shop with confidence. Chapter 9 : Alfred Jacob Miller Online Online shopping from a great selection at Books Store. Discover books, read about the author, find related products, and more. More about Alfred Jacob Miller. Page 6