- John Mix Stanley
John Mix Stanley (
January 17 ,1814 –April 10 ,1872 ) was an American painter of landscapes, portraits and Native American life. He was born in Canandaigua, New York and orphaned at the age of 12. At age 14, Stanley became an apprentice to a coach maker. Looking for better work, he moved to west in 1832 and became a painter of signs and portraits. In spring 1843 Stanley accompanied the party of Indian agentPierce M. Butler to the Tehuacana Creek Council. 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 campaign. He traveled to Hawaii in 1848 and spent a year painting portraits of members of the royal family. He traveled across the Isthmus of Panama in 1853. He also paintedComanche warriors in their natural environment. He moved toDetroit in 1864 and remained there for the rest of his life. Stanley helped to found a forerunner of theDetroit Institute of Arts and to incorporate theNational Gallery and School of Arts.Stanley's primary interests and sympathies were with the Indians. The Smithsonian exhibited his pictures, but Congress never appropriated monies for them. More than 200 of his works were destroyed in the Smithsonian fire of 1865. The
Amon Carter Museum (Fort Worth, Texas), the Arizona State University Art Museum (Tempe, Arizona, theBuffalo Bill Historical Center (Cody, Wyoming), theCorcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D. C.), theDenver Art Museum , theDetroit Institute of Arts ,Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians & Western Art (Indianapolis, Indiana), theGilcrease Museum (Tulsa, Oklahoma), theHonolulu Academy of Arts , theJoslyn Art Museum (Omaha, Nebraska), theMetropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), theNational Gallery of Art , (Washington, D. C.), theNational Museum of Wildlife Art (Jackson Hole, Wyoming), the National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D. C.), thePhoenix Art Museum (Phoenix, Arizona), the Rockwell Museum of Western Art (Corning, New York), theSmithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D. C.), theStark Museum of Art (Orange, Texas), the University of Arizona Museum of Art (Tucson, Arizona), theWestervelt Warner Museum of American Art (Tuscaloosa, Alabama), the William L. Clements Library (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan), theWorcester Art Museum (Worcester, Maine) and theYale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Connecticut) are among the public collections holding works by John Mix Stanley.References
* Forbes, David W., "Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941", Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992.
* Kinietz, William Vernon, “John Mix Stanley and his Indian paintings”, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1942.
* Stanley, John Mix, “Portraits of North American Indians, with sketches of scenery”, Washington, Smithsonian institution, 1852.External links
* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/SS/fstcz.html The Handbook of Texas Online]
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