John Mix Stanley (1814 - 1872)

John Mix Stanley was an American painter of landscapes, portraits and Native American life. He is best known today for painting American Indian life in the West before it was changed by early settlers. He was greatly influenced by both American history painting and European art. He was among the first artists to sketch western scenery and be allowed to paint portraits of various Indian tribes. Art was his passion, and as a granddaughter fondly remembered, he had one ambition or goal as a boy – to become a painter.

Stanley was born in 1814 in New York. He lived with his father until he was fourteen when he became an apprentice to a wagon maker. This was well before

cars were invented. Here is an example of what those wagons might have looked like.

In 1834, Stanley moved to Detroit, Michigan where he made his living as a house and sign painter. Here is an example of what signs of that time looked like. It was in Detroit that he

received his first training in fine arts.

Stanley moved around for a few years to Illinois, Wisconsin, and Fort Snelling, Minnesota, looking for new portrait

subjects and developing his skills as a landscape artist.

It was in Fort Snelling that Stanley first began to paint Indian subjects, which he continued to do for the remainder of his life.

He also traveled back east then to Arkansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. At the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1845, John Mix Stanley joined Colonel Stephen Watts Kearney's expedition to California and produced

many sketches and paintings of the expedition.

The purpose of the expeditions was to determine the best route for a railway to ship supplies from the east coat to the west coast. The Railroad expeditions also provided valuable information about the geology and

biology of the western territories.

In 1846, Stanley journeyed again to New Mexico along the Santa Fe Trail. From there he accompanied Major Stephen W. Kearney on a military expedition to San Diego with the corps of engineers. It was during this trip that he traveled along

the Gila River which was the inspiration for this painting done a few years later.

This expedition also resulted in the first American encounter with, or viewing of, the ruins at Casa

Grande. These ruins were first thought to be of Aztec origin. This was before Arizona became a state and the

land that these ruins sit on was part of Mexico.

During the spring of 1847 Stanley traveled to San Francisco, Oregon, and the area that is now the state

of Washington, where he collected Indian artifacts (objects made by the indians) among the tribes around

Fort Walla Walla.

In the summer of 1848 he left San Francisco and traveled to Hawaii. Stanley is believed to be the earliest professional artist to visit Hawaii. He spent a year there painting portraits of aristocrats and members of the Hawaiian royal family.

By 1850 he had returned to New York where he completed paintings from the sketches made in the

West. In 1852 Stanley settled in the capital, placing his Indian Gallery, which included anywhere from 150 to

200 paintings, at the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1853, he returned to the West as an official artist on a government expedition led by General Isaac I.

Stevens to explore a railroad route from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Puget Sound. Puget Sound is located

near Seattle, Washington.

A total of six expeditions were formed altogether and Stanley made many sketches and photographed the Indians and the

landscape.

In 1854, Stanley married Alice C. English and they had five children. From 1854-1862 Stanley again lived in Washington, DC. In 1863 Stanley moved to Buffalo, New York, where he remained for a year and completed a large scene of the Civil War. In 1864 he exhibited the work in Detroit where he moved to and remained for the rest of his life.

This painting entitled "After a Storm on the Lee Shore" was one of the last paintings that he created.

Few of his works remain today due to numerous fires that destroyed most of his collections. Tragically, all

but five of his paintings at the Smithsonian Institution were destroyed in 1865 by a fire at the Smithsonian; a later fire that same year destroyed another group of

paintings deposited at P.T. Barnum's New York Museum. A third fire at Stanley's studio in Detroit in

1872 destroyed many more of his paintings.

Today the famous western art of John Mix Stanley is included in such collections as the Smithsonian Institution, the Detroit

Art Institute, Buffalo Historical Society and the Honolulu Museum of Art.

“The Trial of Red Jacket” is reportedly his best known work.