Forest Fire, Sunset, and Fur Trader

Artist Steve Snell (American, born 1983)

Date2018

MediumWatercolor; opaque watercolor over graphite pencil on paper

DimensionsImage: 11 1/8 × 16 1/2 inches (28.26 × 41.91 cm)
Sheet: 21 × 28 inches (53.34 × 71.12 cm)

Credit LineGift of Rebecca and Emmett Merrill

Object number2020.9.6

Signed"2018 Steve Snell" in graphite pencil on lower left, verso

Inscribed“A Forest Fire, Sunset, & Fur Trader” 2018 Steve Snell

On View

Not on view

Collections

Contemporary Art

Terms

DescriptionA Forest Fire, Sunset, and Fur Trader is watercolor and opaque watercolor over graphite pencil on a smooth, white paper.The work is rectangular in format, oriented horizontally, with the image situated just slightly above center. The image is broken into three vignettes. The upper vignette is a narrow band that runs the length of the composition and appears to depict the sunset of the title dotted with clouds. Below the evocation of the sunset are two vignettes side by side that occupy the lower three quarters of the composition. At the left and taking up approximately one third of the width of the image, is a depiction of a forest aflame. To the right of the forest fire is a third vignette of an older man wearing a white and red triangular-shaped hat, white and red striped shirt, and brown pants. The man has shoulder-length gray hair and a pipe in his mouth. He looks directly out at the viewer while paddling a canoe which is crossed by the left edge of this vignette. This image is a quotation from an oil painting by the artist George Caleb Bingham, Fur Traders Descending the Missouri.
Provenance

Provenance

The artist (b. 1983), Kansas City, MO, 2018; with Weinberger Fine Art, Kansas City, MO;

Hugh J. Merrill (b. 1949), Kansas City, MO, his gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 30j, 2020. [1]

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