Descripción
Handcolored lithograph, after George Catlin. Sheet size: 18 x 23 7/8 inches. Two old, soft diagonal creases, mat burn in the margins, tape remnants to verso of top edge, small tape reinforcement to bottom right corner, a couple of marginal small chips and very short closed tears, not affecting image. Good plus. A rare lithographic view of the early St. Louis riverfront, the print is based on one of the very first oil paintings of a city in the trans-Mississippi West, George Catlin's 1832-33 oil on canvas, "St. Louis From the River Below." The original painting was once owned by the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association and now by the Missouri Historical Society. Another version of the painting hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The print was probably published under the auspices of the Mercantile Library to celebrate its acquisition of the painting, circa 1865-69. The actual publisher, lithographer, and printer remain unknown. Reps states in ST. LOUIS ILLUSTRATED: "The few impressions existing in public collections suggest that this print may have been issued in only a limited number of copies." The well-detailed and attractive print depicts "St. Louis, with its terraced foundations, just a decade after it was chartered as a city. The artist has appropriately given prominence to the broad Mississippi, which was the lifeblood of the nascent metropolis. He lets the water dominate more than three-quarters of the composition, and he places in full view the odd-looking, high-decked river steamboat specially designed by Henry Miller Shreve for the treacheries of the Mississippi. It was the kind of steamboat piloted by Samuel Clemens ['Mark Twain'] and so colorfully described by him. The steamboat depicted here, the St. Louis, is making its way up river with large flags flying. It has just left the dense cluster of impressive public buildings and residences that form the profile of the city and advertise its rapid growth. Already the city boasted a college (opened in 1818 and also named after St. Louis).The domed structure farthest to the left in the picture is the courthouse, completed in 1830. (Eero Saarinen's Gateway Arch.today soars directly to the east of this original courthouse)" (Deák). George Catlin was thirty-two years old when he painted this important view of St. Louis. Upon completion of the painting, "Catlin set out from St. Louis aboard the riverboat Yellowstone, with easel, canvas, and oil colors, to seek subjects for paintings of the prairie Indians" (Deák). A seldom-seen early view of St. Louis. DEÁK, PICTURING AMERICA 402. REPS, CITIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI, p.177. REPS, ST. LOUIS ILLUSTRATED, p.21. REPS, VIEWS & VIEWMAKERS 2070. N° de ref. del artículo WRCAM54235
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