Alfred Jacob Miller was born in Baltimore in 1810. Miller showed signs of artistic talent at a young page, and his parents wholeheartedly supported his training. He studied portraiture under the painter Thomas Sully. During this time, he attracted the attention of Robert Gilmor and Johns Hopkins. He did portraits for them, and Hopkins funded Miller’s trip to Paris and Rome to study European art.

In 1833, he left for Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the English Life School in Rome. When he returned, he opened a portrait studio in Baltimore. Unfortunately, despite his talent, his business was unsuccessful.

He moved to New Orleans in 1837, and he was given the opportunity to accompany Captain William Drummond Stewart on a journey to the Rocky Mountains, recording the journey in artwork. This was one of the last fur trapping expeditions.

The journey spanned the Oregon Trail, and Miller sketched Native Americans encountered as well as landscapes and mountain men. Miller’s feelings about the trip were mixed. In fact, he was so bothered by the uncivilized behavior of the men that he often wandered off by himself, sketching landscapes. Stewart even snuck up behind him one time, grabbed him around the neck and warned him that he should pay more attention and not get lost in his sketches when there was very real danger of Indians.

Miller had an endless supply of subjects to sketch while on the trip. From awe-inspiring landscapes to Stewart’s interaction with the Native Americans, he sketched continuously.

He returned with 166 sketches which were later turned into elaborate oil paintings. He painted buffaloes and grizzly bears. These animals had never been encountered by the people of New York and Baltimore, so it was understandable that they created a big sensation.

From 1840 to 1842, he stayed in Scotland in Stewarts’s Murthly Castle. He wanted Miller to help him redecorate the castle with artwork. During this time, Miller completed over 80 small drawings and watercolors as well as painting oil paintings of favorite parts of his trip.

Miller spent the rest of his life painting portraits and replicating his Western themed pictures.

It is possible that undiscovered works of Miller do exist. This is due in part to the fact that many of his Western paintings were executed for individual clients and remained in private ownership. It wasn’t until after his death that his name became well-known and appreciated by the public.