Live Auction 17661American Art
Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874)
Lot 62 PROPERTY FROM THE WESTERVELT COMPANY

Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874)

Trappers around a Campfire with the Wind River Mountains of the Rockies in the Background

Closed20 November 2019

Price Realised

USD 423,000

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Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874)
Trappers around a Campfire with the Wind River Mountains of the Rockies in the Background
oil on canvas
38 ¼ x 32 ¼ in. (97.6 x 81.9 cm.)
Painted circa 1839.

The artist.
Sir William Drummond Stewart, Murthly Castle, Perthshire, Scotland, acquired from the above, 1840.
Frank Nichols, Perthshire, Scotland, by descent.
Sale: Chapman's, Edinburgh, Scotland, 16-17 June 1871, sold by the above.
Steuart Fothringham Family, Murthly Castle, Perthshire, Scotland, until 1963.
Leo Heaps, Toronto, Canada.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1975.

Specialist note


In 1837, Alfred Jacob Miller accompanied Scottish nobleman Sir William Drummond Stewart on an expedition to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. As a result of this trip, his only one to the West, Miller gathered sufficient ideas to pursue a lifelong career painting images of American frontier life. The present work, painted for his patron shortly after their trip, features Stewart himself visible in the distance, holding a spyglass and wearing his usual buckskin outfit. Other members of the expedition, Antoine Clement, Bill Burrows and Pierre, prepare dinner around the campfire in the foreground.