Campfire at Night; Trapper Relating an Adventure began as a sketch for Sir William Drummond Stewart, An Old Trapper Relating an Adventure. That sketch was sold at auction in 1966 and has been unlocated since, but the sale catalogue described it as follows, “Capt. Stewart and his party are seated round the campfire while a trapper engages their interest with stories.”
In anticipation of future commissions for his western subjects, Miller appears to have copied or even traced many of the sketches he made for Stewart before returning to Baltimore. This sketch may have originated in Scotland, but based on stylistic evidence, it is more likely this was yet another version painted or greatly re-worked closer to the time he painted the Walters images. The figures have thicker proportions and softer contours than the attenuated physiques of the bodies in the Stewart sketches. The surface of the watercolor is also more thickly-covered with opaque paint. The elaborate tree and sky, with gouache clouds, is characteristic of features in the Walters sketches. This sketch also has broad passages of undifferentiated wash in the foreground and sides of the image and a lack of detail in the costumes, indicative of a preparatory rather than a finished sketch.
The artist; Carrie C. Miller, Annapolis, MD; Peale Museum, Baltimore, MD; Mae Reed Porter, Kansas City, MO; [M. Knoedler and Co., New York, NY]; InterNorth Art Foundation, Omaha, NE; present owner
