Missouri Landmarks

George Caleb Bingham House

The George Caleb Bingham House in Arrow Rock, Missouri was the principal residence of portraitist and landscape painter George Caleb Bingham from 1837 to 1845. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

George Caleb Bingham

George Caleb Bingham was born March 20, 1811.  Bingham was the first American artist of exceptionable talent from the “West”.  He is best known for scenes  from the daily life of what was then the Western frontier.  Lewis and Clark had returned from their 1804-06 westward exploration only five years before Bingham was born.  In 1820, when Bingham was nine, Missouri became the 24th state.

Bingham’s works from 1845-55, the decade of much of his best work, generally relate to life and commerce along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and to scenes involving the people of Missouri in and around St. Louis, Columbia, Jefferson City, Arrow Rock, Boonville, and Kansas City.

Daniel Boone Leads Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap

Bingham’s paintings immortalized the common man:  fur traders,  riverboat men, and settlers.  He produced scenes of frontier life which he knew from both tradition and first hand observation; and scenes of the young nation’s democratic process: political campaigning and elections, which he knew from his deep involvement with the Whig party, with Missouri state politics and national politics, and as a seeker and achiever of political office himself.  Bingham also made historical paintings, sharing his view of events in American history.  These depict scenes from the Revolutionary War, the American Frontier, and the Civil War.

George Caleb Binham passed away on July 7, 1879.  The majority of Bingham’s paintings, and virtually all of his drawings, are held in American museums.  The largest selection of paintings is at the St. Louis Museum of Art.   No museums outside of the United States hold any works by Bingham.  Other than portraits, his available paintings are rare and are seldom found at galleries or at auction.

A visit to Missouri is the best way to get to know this artist’s works.