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Nooning on the Platte

Date
c.1859
Classification
Paintings
Collection
American Art
Current Location
On View, Gallery 336
Dimensions
7 x 13 in. (17.8 x 33 cm)
framed: 12 3/4 x 18 7/8 x 2 in. (32.4 x 48 x 5.1 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of J. Lionberger Davis
Rights
Public Domain
Object Number
157:1953
NOTES
Best known for his dramatic paintings of the American West, Albert Bierstadt also made more intimate sketches that capture with equal power the expansive grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. Bierstadt painted Nooning on the Platte in 1859 while part of a government survey party bound for the Rocky Mountains. Artists like Bierstadt wanted their predominantly Eastern clientele to know they had actually seen the landscape they painted. Travel through the area by white Americans was nearly impossible, however, without the provisions and expertise provided by military or government expeditions.
by 1948 -
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, NY [1]

by 1952 - 1953
J. Lionberger Davis, St. Louis, MO [2]

1953 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, gift of J. Lionberger Davis [3]


Notes:
[1] Per Saint Louis Art Museum accession record.

[2] A 1952 loan list indicates that J. Lionberger Davis had lent the painting to the Museum by this date [loan list, April 11, 1952, SLAM document files].

[3] Letter from Perry T. Rathbone to J. Lionberger Davis, dated November 6, 1953 [SLAM document file for 158:1953]. Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, November 5, 1953.

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

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