Mississippi Fisherman

CC0 Public Domain Designation

c. 1850

George Caleb Bingham
American, 1811–1879

George Caleb Bingham portrayed a man quietly fishing in a secluded spot, delineating the figure and environs with controlled brushwork. Raised in Missouri, Bingham specialized in genre paintings of white working-class boatmen who facilitated the brisk movement of commercial goods along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers in the mid-19th century. Here, the figure’s loose-fitting shirt, boots, and hat convey his role as a laborer in the area’s river economy.

Achieving a national reputation as an artist, Bingham also engaged in politics, holding positions in Missouri state government. During the 1850s he was a staunch advocate for the preservation of the Union and spoke out against slavery. Focusing on everyday activities that transpired along interregional waterways, Bingham reinforced the critical ties between west and east, north and south, amid a disquieted nation.

Status: On View, Gallery 171
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: George Caleb Bingham
Title: Mississippi Fisherman
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1850
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 74.9 × 62.5 cm (29 1/2 × 24 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Jamee J. and Marshall Field
Reference Number: 2021.225
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/260764/manifest.json

Maurice E. Bloch, George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), 80 (A206).
Maurice E. Bloch, George Caleb Bingham: The Evolution of an Artist (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), 104, 106, ill. pl. 73.
Maurice E. Bloch, The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986), 191-192 (A234), ill. p. 83.
Michael Edward Shapiro, et. al., George Caleb Bingham, exh. cat. (New York: The Saint Louis Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 159, 167, ill. pl. 44.
Michael Edward Shapiro, George Caleb Bingham (New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1993), 65, 69; ill. p. 65.
Nenette Luarca-Shoaf, et. al. Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River, exh. cat. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014), 67, 85, 199; ill. pl. 29.
Fred R. Kline, ed., “Mississippi Fisherman, c. 1850 (Bloch86 234),” George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonné, accessed Nov. 22, 2021, https://catalogue.binghamcatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=6 (ill.).

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, George Caleb Bingham 1811–1879, Oct. 79, 1967–Jan. 1, 1968, cat. 20; Cleveland Museum of Art, Jan. 14–Mar. 10, 1968; The Art Galleries, University of California at Los Angeles, Apr. 7–May 79, 7968.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The Romantic Vision in America, Oct. 9–Nov. 28, 1971, cat. 31 (ill.).
Evanston, IL, Terra Museum of American Art, Life in Nineteenth–Century America, Sept. 11–Nov. 15, 1981, cat. 17.
Saint Louis Art Museum, George Caleb Bingham, Feb. 22–May 13, 1990; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, July 15–Sept. 30, 1990, cat. 44.
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River, Oct. 2, 2014– Jan. 18, 2015, cat. 29; Saint Louis Museum of Art, Feb. 22–May 17, 2015; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 15–Sept. 20, 2015.

William P. Thomas (1826–1883), Missouri, brother of George Caleb Bingham’s second wife, Eliza K. Thomas Bingham (1830–1876); by descent to his wife Martha Ann Collins Thomas (1830–1928), Lake Charles, LA; by descent to her granddaughter May Cook Caldwell (1889–1963), Lake Charles, LA; with James Graham & Sons Gallery, New York, 1961; sold to Marshall Field V, Illinois and Florida, 1963; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2021.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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