Skip to main content

Captured by Indians

Date
1848
Material
Oil on canvas
Classification
Paintings
Collection
American Art
Current Location
Not on view
Dimensions
25 1/8 x 30 1/16 in. (63.8 x 76.3 cm)
framed: 31 5/8 x 36 1/2 x 2 7/8 in. (80.3 x 92.7 x 7.3 cm)
Credit Line
Bequest of Arthur C. Hoskins
Rights
Public Domain
Object Number
147:1962
by 1859 -
Charles Derby, St. Louis, MO [1]

Mr. Pearce

by 1902 -
Mr. and Mrs. John J. Conroy, Columbia, MO, purchased from Mr. Pearce [2]

by 1908 - still in 1940
McCaughen & Burr Fine Arts, St. Louis, MO [3]

by 1954 -1962
Arthur C. Hoskins, St. Louis, MO, purchased from McCaughen & Burr Fine Arts [4]

1962 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Arthur C. Hoskins [5]


Notes:
The main source for this provenance is Bloch's catalogue raisonné, the 1986 edition, cat. no. 385 [Bloch, E. Maurice. "The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné." Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1986]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted. "Captured by Indians" is considered to be the pendant of "The Belated Wayfarers" (664:1958), and the two works share most of the same provenance.

[1] In 1859, Derby exhibited a painting entitled "The Captive," at the Fourth Annual Fair of the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association [Hopewell, Menra. "Report of the Fourth Annual Fair of the St. Louis Agricultural & Mechanical Association of September, 1859." St. Louis: George Knapp & Co., September, 1859, p. 125 cat. no. 81]. Bloch believed this was most likely the same painting as "Captured by Indians".

[2] In a letter dated December 13, 1902, the artist Mat Hastings, a friend of Bingham, wrote that the "Captured by Indians" and "The Belated Wayfarers" had once been owned by a Mr. Pearce, who sold them to Mr. and Mrs. John J. Conroy. Hastings did not provide Pearce's years of ownership. E. Maurice Bloch suggested that the letter was written to Mrs. John J. Conroy, but this seems unlikely since Hastings refers to her in the third person. Bloch stated that the original copy of the letter was at the Missouri History Museum [typed transcription of letter in SLAM document files].

[3] Bloch noted that McCaughen & Burr Fine Arts owned the paintings by 1908. The firm still owned the painting in 1940 [Christ-Janer, Albert. "George Caleb Bingham of Missouri: The Story of an Artist." New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1940, p.71].

[4] In 1954, Arthur C. Hoskins lent the painting to the City Art Museum's exhibition "Westward the Way" [Rathbone, Perry. "Westward the Way." St. Louis: Von Hoffman Press, 1954, p. 268].

[5] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, October 11, 1962.

We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.

Scroll back to top