September 20, 2008–January 11, 2009
Sentimental Journey: The Art of Alfred Jacob Miller
Embark on a captivating visual adventure in this special exhibition of paintings and drawings by Alfred Jacob Miller (1810–1874), the first American artist to journey into the heart of the Rocky Mountains. See his first-hand depictions of the Lakota, Shoshone, and Nez Perces he encountered, and meet the last of the true fur trappers and traders of the nineteenth-century American West.
Traveling west in 1837 with his patron, the Scottish aristocrat and adventurer Sir William Drummond Stewart, Miller was witness to what we think of today as the West. Today, he is considered one of the most important artists of this era for his portrayals of that time and place.
This special exhibition features compelling and authentic depictions of this critical chapter in U.S. history and offers a revealing new interpretation of Miller’s work by presenting it in terms of how, where, and for whom it was painted. In addition to the works he created for Stewart, Miller was financially successful—in the face of keen competition from other painters of the West, like George Catlin and Seth Eastman—in making a limited repertoire of western subjects interesting, appealing, and relevant to other audiences, especially the merchant class in Baltimore, where he lived and worked until he retired in 1872.
Sentimental Journey: The Art of Alfred Jacob Miller is organized by the Amon Carter Museum and was made possible in part by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mary Potishman Lard Trust, the Katrine Menzing Deakins Charitable Trust, the Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust, and U.S. Trust.
Related Events
Saturday, October 11, 10 a.m.
Alfred Jacob Miller: East to West
Anne Burnett Tandy Distinguished Lectures in American Art, Symposium
This symposium will explore little-known facets of Alfred Jacob Miller’s rich and varied career, from his time among the American Indians and in the Rockies to his life in Baltimore. Miller’s work will be discussed within the broader contexts of American Indian imagery, popular representations of trappers, hunting scenes, western humor, and sentimentalism.
Speakers
- Dr. John Mack Faragher, Arthur Unobskey Professor of American History and Director, Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders, Yale University
- Dr. Jennifer Greenhill, assistant professor of American art, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Dr. Kenneth Haltman, associate professor of art history, University of Oklahoma
- Lisa Strong, independent scholar and guest curator of Sentimental Journey: The Art of Alfred Jacob Miller
- Dr. Ron Tyler, director, Amon Carter Museum
This program is held in conjunction with the exhibition Sentimental Journey: The Art of Alfred Jacob Miller, on view at the Amon Carter Museum from September 20, 2008, to January 11, 2009. Reservations are required; seating is limited. Please call 817.989.5057 by October 1 to register; confirmation will be sent.
Sunday, October 12, 1 p.m.
Expectations, Explorations, and Destinations
Target Family Fun Days
Time travel through art! Create your own travel journal and listen to adventurous tales from the frontier.
Target Family Fun Days are generously supported by 