Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874)

Starving Trappers

Details

Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874)
Starving Trappers
signed with initials in monogram 'AJM' (lower left)-- inscribed 'Starving Trappers/near Independence Rock' (upper right)
wash, ink and pencil on paper
8 x 13 in. (20.3 x 33 cm.)
Executed in 1837.

Provenance

The artist, Baltimore, Maryland.
Purnell Art Co., Baltimore, Maryland.
Goodyear Family, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
With Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, 1976.
Joseph H. Willard, Pittsford, New York.
Pittsford Framing Company, Pittsford, New York.
With Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Literature

Kennedy Quarterly, June 1976, no. 10, illustrated.
R. Tyler, et al., Alfred Jacob Miller: Artist on the Oregon Trail, Fort Worth, Texas, 1982, pp. 24, 25, 259, no. 164, illustrated.

Exhibited

Santa Fe, New Mexico, Gerald Peters Gallery, Alfred Jacob Miller: Artist as Explorer, First Views of the American Frontier, September 10, 1999-January 29, 2000.

Lot Essay

In 1837, Captain William Drummond Stewart invited Alfred Jacob Miller to accompany him on a trip to the Rocky Mountains as the expedition artist. The present work documents a specific event on this trip and reveals Miller's great respect and admiration for Stewart. Ron Tyler writes that "he [Stewart] could be determined...and he could be generous, as he was with two trappers encountered near Independence Rock. Abandoned with no equipment or animals, the men were near starvation when the caravan came along. Stewart outfitted them and sent them on their way, probably with better equipment than they had originally possessed." (Alfred Jacob Miller: Artist on the Oregon Trail, Fort Worth, Texas, 1982, p. 24)

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