George Caleb Bingham

George Caleb Bingham (1811 - 1879) was an American artist, soldier and politician known in his lifetime as "the Missouri Artist". Initially a Whig, he was elected as a delegate to the Missouri legislature before the American Civil War where he fought the extension of slavery westward. The rivers such as Missouri and Mississippi, located in the west of America throughout his art life and his surroundings inspired the artist. In landscape paintings, he managed to reflect his rich observations about nature with his fine provincial sensitivity to his canvas.