Alfred Jacob Miller was a struggling twenty-seven-year-old painter when Scottish nobleman Captain William Drummond Stewart invited him to accompany his 1837 expedition on a journey to the American West as its official artist. This unique opportunity led to Miller’s extraordinary career, rescuing him from a dull existence as a portrait painter.

Traveling along the route that later became the Oregon Trail, Stewart’s party eventually arrived at the last great gathering of mountain men, a rendezvous that took place in Green River Valley in what is today southwestern Wyoming. Miller sketched the thousands of Indians, trappers, and fur traders who were attending the historic gathering, becoming the first, and perhaps only, artist to paint the legendary fur trade from first-hand experience. After the rendezvous, Stewart’s party traveled further west into the Rocky Mountains, reaching the fabled Wind River country where Miller was the first artist to interpret the rugged splendor of the Rockies.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, to a prosperous family, Miller studied portrait painting with Thomas Sully (1783-1872), America’s leading portraitist, before continuing his studies in Paris and Rome. Returning to Baltimore in 1834, he opened a portrait studio that was not successful. He then moved to New Orleans where, in 1837, he met Stewart, an exuberant explorer and big game hunter. Miller eagerly accepted Stewart’s offer to “sketch the remarkable scenery and incidents of the journey,” which would serve Stewart as souvenirs of the adventure.

Miller used his numerous watercolor sketches to create the larger paintings that occupied him for the remainder of his career. He often painted several versions of the same subject. The trademark white horse that appears in many of his works was a tribute to Stewart, who rode a large white steed during the expedition. By the time he painted Trappers En Route For the Rendezvous, he portrayed the awesome scenery bathed in a mythical haze, rendering the trappers—and Stewart’s white horse—as tiny figures incidental to the grand scene.

Of all the Indians he encountered during his western travels, Miller was most impressed by the Snake Indians, noting that their horses and equipment were better and “they were more friendly, sociable, and hospitable” than others he met. His watercolors, such as Snake Indian Smoking Pipe in Front of Tipi, are considered superior to his more studied oils, which he painted after his western sojourn. Not only are the watercolors more spontaneous, they combine the impression of immediacy with technical skill and iconographic veracity—exhibiting a virtuoso display of his artistic mastery and keen observation of the theatrical spectacles he witnessed.

After Miller returned east, he began a series of large oil paintings commemorating the adventure.

In 1839, he took up residence in Stewart’s Murthly Castle in Scotland where he completed oversized paintings to decorate the castle and produced a souvenir portfolio of ink and watercolor sketches for Stewart. Returning to America in 1842, Miller remained in the East, never returning to the scenes of his greatest work. His one western adventure had provided him with a lifetime of inspiration.