One of the earliest white artists to portray life in the West, Alfred Jacob Miller had no idea he was headed that way, until an unexpected 1837 encounter with a Scotsman, who hired him to document the trip through illustrations. Their ensuing journey was Miller’s only westward travel. However, he found so much inspiration and made so many sketches from that one journey that it sustained commissions for the rest of his life.

Miller, who made a career out of one trip, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in January 1810, the first of nine children in a family of comfortable means. There is scant information on his youth. Multiple sources say that he received his first formal instruction from the British-American portrait painter Thomas Sully.

Alfred Jacob Miller

Indians Beside Lake
Oil
10″x15.75″
J.N. Bartfield Galleries New York, New York

Alfred Jacob Miller

Storm – Waiting for the Caravan
Oil
9.3″x12.9″
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD