- Scene on the Canadian River
Explore Further
These five unpublished drawings (See B.96.17, B.96.18, B.96.19, and B.96.20) document areas on the Canadian River of north Texas following the Civil War. A landscape artist, portraitist, and lithographer, Vincent Colyer was elected in 1849 to the National Academy of Design, New York. He exhibited his work in New York and at the Boston Athenaeum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore. Following the Civil War, during which time he painted portraits and attended the sick and wounded, Colyer settled in Connecticut in 1866. In 1869, he served as an Indian commissioner, hired by the United States government to travel to the various Native American agencies of north Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Alaska, and what is now Oklahoma. It was at this time that Colyer documented the terrain and flora of north Texas.
Colyer’s topographical renderings of this area may have assisted the U.S. Army’s operations on the Southern Plains during the Indian Wars. His artistic activities in Texas also coincide with the government’s effort to investigate western lands in a series of surveys from 1867 to 1879 in order to encourage settlement, promote tourism, and assess natural resources. His work, then, relates to that of such other artist-explorers as Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902), who made his first government expedition west in 1859, and Thomas Moran (1837–1926), who headed west two years after Colyer
Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.
Provenance[Edward Eberstadt & Sons, New York, c. 1958]; [Kennedy Galleries, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1996.
Exhibition HistoryLoaned to Cypress Creek Christian Church and Community Center, Spring, Texas, for display in Colyer exhibition February 9–July 16, 1999
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed lower left: reddish yellow ochre
Inscribed lower center: yellow ochre
Inscribed lower right: [illegible] reflecting [illegible]; Reddish yellow sand
Inscribed on verso mount: A13780
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.