In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, George Calder Eichbaum (1837-1919) was one of the most popular portrait artists in Missouri. A contemporary wrote, “In beauty of coloring and truthfulness of likeness his portraits rank among the best painted by Western artists.” Yet memory of him hides in the shadow of his extraordinary teacher, George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879).  Bingham’s patron, James Sidney Rollins (1812-1881) also supported Eichbaum. Eichbaum painted copies of Bingham’s portraits of Mrs. James Sidney Rollins (Mary Elizabeth Rollins) (1820-1907), their son, Frank Blair Rollins (1857-1884). Eichbaum’s copy of Bingham’s 1837 portrait of Major Richard Gentry, hangs in the Gentry County, Missouri, courthouse. Portraits by Eichbaum are, at times, attributed to George Caleb Bingham due to several technical similarities. 

When Eichbaum unleashed his dramatic flair, his work was at its best. Mrs. Josephine Bouvier as Lady Gay Spanker, 1878,  held by the Saint Louis Art Museum, epitomizes his personal style. In the three-quarter portrait, Bouvier, an actress, poses as a character from a popular theatrical comedy, London Assurance, a riding crop held casually over her shoulder, her head turned toward the viewer with a steady gaze and enigmatic smile.  That same year, Eichbaum exhibited a now lost artwork, The Defeated Candidate, at the National Academy of Design where it “received a most flattering notice in the Art Journal as a piece of undoubted merit” and fetched “a handsome figure.”  He continued on to the Paris Exposition and then devoted “some months abroad among the galleries of the Old World.” On his return, his style was still further refined as can be seen in his 1901 portrait, William Christy Bryan, Jr.

Eichbaum was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on May 12, 1837, the second of eight children of civil engineer, George Robinson Eichbaum, and his wife, Helena Calder.  The family lived in Ohio and Pennsylvania, before establishing permanent residence in Missouri. In the early and mid-1850s, while still a teenager, Eichbaum probably studied with George Caleb Bingham, though he never claimed the association, but similarities in his early work are unmistakable. By 1859, Eichbaum had set up his own studio in St Louis. He was only 22.

Eichbaum never married. He lived with his widowed mother and maiden sisters. He died April 18, 1919, and is buried in family plot at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

Owners of artwork by George Calder Eichbaum include the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, Missouri; the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri; Montana Historical Society, the R. W. Norton Art Foundation, the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis University, and the United States Military Academy.

We are offering this magnificent portrait of a young child but unfortunately we don't know who he is.

This painting has an original antique gold leaf frame and in a very good condition with one scratch on the top and couple of small scratches on the right side.

Size: 32" x 28" framed