Bingham scholar E. Maurice Bloch listed the portraits of Mrs. Ephraim Allison (Ruth McCarty), 1872 (A383) and Tom Edward Allison, 1872, (A384) in his definitive work, George Caleb Bingham Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonne, (University of Missouri Press, 1986). As I worked with lists and images of Bingham portraits, I wondered, wouldn’t Bingham have painted Mr. Ephraim Allison as well? The thought passed, barely noticed. Years later, …
George Caleb Bingham and the Art Detective
George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) George Caleb Bingham lived at the edge of civilization after his family moved from Virginia to Missouri Territory in 1819. He saw the native peoples, the trappers and fur traders, and the fishermen. He saw the men who worked the steamboats, the lighters, the wood boats. He saw camp meetings, political stumping, elections, and the verdicts …