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George Caleb Bingham

Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap

1851–52

On View in Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, Room 1

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The narrative landscapes of Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham, a significant contributor to early American genre painting, were influential in crafting and disseminating political ideologies and popular myths about American national identity in the era of westward expansion. Here Bingham uses Christian and classical iconography to celebrate Daniel Boone and his explorations of the American West seventy-five years earlier, specifically his entrance into the tribal territories of Kentucky. Boone’s stance is modeled after the ancient Greek sculpture of the Spear-Bearer of Polykleitos, which was emblematic of male beauty; he is shown emerging with his caravan from a foreboding valley into the dramatic light of the foreground, evoking Moses leading his people toward the Promised Land. Boone’s wife sits prominently atop a white horse with a shawl draped around her body and head, suggesting the figure of the Virgin Mary. The triumphant passage of the group through the landscape, with its sublime valley, menacing cliffs, and storm-damaged trees, lends further authority to their civilizing mission, symbolically sanctioning westward expansion. [Permanent collection label, 2016]

  • Artist George Caleb Bingham (American, 1811–1879)
  • Title Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap
  • Date 1851–52
  • Medium Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions unframed | 36 1/2 x 50 1/4 in.
  • Credit line Gift of Nathaniel Phillips, 1890
  • Object number WU 2171
  • Currently on View Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, Room 1

Reframing the 19th Century
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 06/20/2024

Der Luthereffekt. 500 Jahre Protestantismus in der Welt (The Luther Effect. Protestantism—500 Years in the World)
Deutsches Historisches Museum, Federal President, Martin-Gropius Bau (Berlin, Germany), 04/12/2017 - 11/05/2017

Real / Radical / Psychological: The Collection on Display
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2016 - 01/15/2017

American Places: Painting the Landscape in the Nineteenth Century
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/20/2013 - 01/06/2014

Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation
Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (Shanghai, China), 04/30/2007 - 06/30/2007
Pushkin Museum of Fine Art (Moscow, Russia), 07/23/2007 - 09/09/2007
National Art Museum of China (Beijing, China), 02/10/2007 - 04/05/2007

Travel and Tourism in American Culture
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/01/2005 - 10/21/2005

Collecting Patterns
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/05/2003 - 12/07/2003

The American West: Selections from the Washington University Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/03/2002 - 04/14/2002

American Heroism
National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo, Japan), 08/07/2001 - 10/14/2001

St. Louis and the Art of the Frontier
Saint Louis Mercantile Library, University of Missouri—St. Louis (St. Louis, Missouri), 11/11/2000 - 01/31/2001

Beginnings: The Taste of the Founders
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/21/2000 - 03/19/2000

Green Acres: Neocolonialism in the U.S.
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/11/1992 - 11/01/1992

Columbus of the Woods: Daniel Boone and the Typology of Manifest Destiny
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/24/1992 - 03/29/1992

Promised Land: Images of Westward Expansion 1820–1910
Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC)

George Caleb Bingham: A Portrait of His Time
Saint Louis Art Museum, 02/24/1990 - 05/13/1990

Parsons Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/15/1983 - 08/21/1983

The Way We See It: America by Americans 1850–1980
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 10/10/1982 - 11/07/1982

The Centennial Exhibition
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/15/1981 - 10/11/1981

Nineteenth Century American Painting
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 11/16/1979 - 01/06/1980

Currents of Expansion: Painting in the Midwest, 1820–1940
Saint Louis Art Museum, 02/18/1977 - 04/10/1977

Bingham's Missouri
Bingham Drawings [Verify], Saint Louis Art Museum (St. Louis, Missouri), 10/06/1976 - 11/28/1976
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri), 09/25/1975 - 04/11/1976

The American Frontier—Images and Myths
Whitney Museum of American Art, 06/26/1973 - 09/16/1973

American West
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, Texas), 02/03/1972 - 03/05/1972

American Landscape: A Changing Frontier
Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC), 04/27/1966 - 06/19/1966

Inaugural Exhibition
Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, Florida), 02/06/1965 - 03/07/1965

Four Centuries of American Masterpieces, Organized by the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Skowhegan, Maine) for the
Better Living Center at the New York World’s Fair (New York, New York), 05/01/1964 - 10/18/1964

George Caleb Bingham Sesquicentennial
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri), 03/16/1961 - 05/30/1961

Opening Exhibition of Mark C. Steinberg Memorial Hall
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 04/29/1960

Last Frontier
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri), 10/05/1957 - 11/17/1957

European Travelling Show
Venue Unknown (Innsbruck, Austria), 07/15/1955 - 08/20/1955
Venue Unknown (Ghent, Belgium), 09/01/1955

American Heritage
Ohio Gallery of Fine Arts (Columbus, Ohio), 09/01/1948 - 12/01/1948

American Masters
Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), 02/20/1948 - 03/28/1948

New York World’s Fair
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 04/24/1939 - 10/29/1939

George Caleb Bingham, The Missouri Artist
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 01/30/1935 - 03/07/1935

Works of George Caleb Bingham
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 04/01/1934
Saint Louis Art Museum, 04/01/1934

Sesquicentennial Celebration
Ohio University (Athens, Ohio)

1890
Nathaniel Phillips

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

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