Man in a Blue Vest

In the “Style of George Caleb Bingham” was the description of a portrait sold at auction several years ago. The winner bidder asked Fine Art Investigations if George Caleb Bingham created Man in a Blue Vest? Bingham? No. Not only did the technique differ, the painting had an entirely different sensibility. The dark-haired subject’s open collar, his dressing gown worn …

Stories Behind the Portraits: The Dunnicas

Discovering History through Art Historians usually add a painting as an illustration. Fine Art Investigations uses portraits as an entry point to history.  An example is the stories behind the recently re-discovered portraits of the Dunnicas. The first part of their biography briefly described American expansion in the west after the War of 1812. Back when the Western frontier was central Missouri and …

Recto and Verso: Mary Elizabeth Hickman Rollins

Recto – George Caleb Bingham Mary Elizabeth Hickman was born in Franklin, Missouri, on October 10, 1820, the middle child of the three children of James E. Hickman and Sophia Woodson Hickman. The Bingham family arrived in Franklin from Virginia shortly before her birth. James Hickman and George Caleb Bingham’s father, Henry Vest Bingham, invested in some of the same …