ALFRED JACOB MILLER, Indians in a Boat

This work relates directly to the watercolor (8 5/16 by 13 13/16 inches) by the same title in the collection of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.  The watercolor is dated circa 1858-1860.

In the spring through fall of 1837, Miller accompanied Captain William Drummond Stewart, an adventurous Scotsman on an excursion to the unchartered lands west of the Mississippi.  Following a route that became known as the Oregon Trail, Miller recorded frontier life in his sketchbooks, providing an invaluable record of the period.  After his remarkable expedition, Miller established a studio in Baltimore where over the years he copied many of his original sketches and used them as a source for larger oils.

Indian Canoe depicts a group of Indians transporting their possessions.  Miller observed in his original notes: "The Indians exercise great ingenuity, with an eye for modelling and symmetry in the construction of their canoes...[In] combining three excellent qualities, strength, lightness and durability, three or four men readily convey them across land from one river to another.  They are in great esteem and demand in making portages at The Dalles of the Columbia River.

"The birch-bark canoe (the subject of our sketch) is still more elegant in shape and more buoyant [than a dugout log canoe] but not as strong as the former.  In propelling the boat the Indians use flat paddles, two or more on each side,-the sketch will convey and idea of the boat's appearance on the river" (Marvin C. Ross, The West of Alfred Jacob Miller, pp. 164-65).