The Wisconsin Historical Society has been collecting paintings since 1854. Currently the Wisconsin Historical Museum owns more than 400 paintings. Many of them can be viewed online.

Significant national and regional artists are represented, including John Singer Sargent, George Catlin, Eastman Johnson, Thomas Sully, Robert Sully, Homer Dodge Martin, Samuel Marsden Brookes, James Reeve Stuart, George C. Bingham, John Steuart Curry, Everett Kinstler and George Pollard. See the full list of artists.

Painting subjects are primarily people, scenes, activities, and events that relate to Wisconsin history. Most of the paintings are 19th-century portraits. See the full list of individuals featured in the paintings.

How the Paintings in the Museum Collections are Organized

Online

Each painting belongs to a browsable category and each has a detail record associated with it. When you find a painting, you will see a thumbnail image and a brief description. To enlarge the image, click on the thumbnail. To see the detail record of the painting, click on its brief description. Not included online are paintings from the Wisconsin Historic Sites and unframed works of art from the Society's Archives.

• Browse Paintings in the Museum Collections

Browsable Categories

Paintings are browsable by the following categories.

Artist

Artists' names are listed alphabetically. Click on an artist's name to see a list of paintings by that artist.

Animal paintings

Paintings in which the primary subject is an animal, generally a dog, horse, or other prized pet or livestock, or an exotic wild animal.

Genre paintings

Paintings that represent scenes or events from everyday life.

History paintings

Paintings that depict multi-figure narrative scenes of real or legendary events, especially those in the academic style and with subject matter intended to convey a noble sentiment.

Landscape paintings

Paintings that depict outdoor scenes where the picture is dominated by the configuration, visual and aesthetic, of the land, bodies of water, and natural elements. Both creative landscapes and documentary topographical views are included under this heading.

Marine paintings

Paintings that depict scenes having to do with ships, shipbuilding, or harbors.

Portrait Paintings

Paintings representing real individuals that are intended to capture a known or supposed likeness, usually including the face of the person. You may browse portraits of women, children, Native Americans, or Wisconsin governors. You may also browse subjects of portrait paintings alphabetically by name (clicking on a letter will list paintings of people whose names (mostly surnames) start with that letter.)

Still Life paintings

Paintings in which the focus is a depiction of inanimate objects, as distinguished from art in which objects are subsidiary elements in a composition. The term is generally applied to depictions of fruit, flowers, meat or dead game, vessels, eating utensils, and other objects.

Detail Records

Each painting has a detail record which contains the following information.

Catalog Number

The identification number the Wisconsin Historical Museum uses to track the object. Please refer to this number in any correspondence with Museum staff.

AAT Object Term

What the artifact is called according to the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, a vocabulary created by the J. Paul Getty Trust. (In a few instances, local terminology is used.)

Materials/Medium

The medium of the painting, in terms used by the Art and Architecture Thesaurus.

Object History

Contextual information about the painting, the subject, the artist, and/or the circumstances surrounding the painting's creation, use, and acquisition by the Wisconsin Historical Society. If that information is not available, the object history does not appear. For many paintings, object history is a list of quotes from various primary and secondary sources. Most notably, from the Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, and various annual reports and catalogs of the Wisconsin Historical Society. These quotes, transcribed verbatim, provide a flavor for the times in which the paintings were made and acquired. Opinions expressed and phraseology used in quotations do not necessarily reflect current views of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Dates

Dates associated with the object's history. Dates usually refer to design, manufacture, and/or subject.

Physical

Most original paintings are housed in the Society's storage facility. The Museum displays a number of paintings as a part of its exhibits and many are on on display the State Capitol, Society headquarters, and local historical museums throughout the state.

If you would like to make an appointment to see a particular painting or want more information about its donor, size or condition, please contact the Curator of Domestic Life.

The Historical Society cannot provide information regarding appraisal values and storage locations.

How to Purchase an Image of a Painting

If you are interested in purchasing a hi-res digital file for publication or a print of a painting, contact Lisa Marine. Copy and paste the URL of the painting's webpage into the email, or include the painting title, artist, and catalog number.

Not all paintings are available for reproduction. Some may be on loan, too large to scan, or we may not have permission to reproduce the painting.

Note: The images of paintings on our website are not publication quality. They are low-res scans of photographs and intended only for reference.

Have Questions?

Contact our Museum staff by email.

• paul.bourcier@wisconsinhistory.org

Artists and Subjects

Artists of Paintings in the Museum Collections

• Abrahamsen, Christian (1887-1983)
• Anderson, Donald M. (1915-1995)
• Andrews, Edward Harrison (b. 1837/38)
• Arneson, Carl (1877-1959)
• Audibert, Paul Raymond
• Aus, Carol (1878-1934)
• Bedore, Anna Lou Matthews (1878-1962)
• Bensing, Frank C. (1893-1983)
• Bentley, Lester W. (1908-1972)
• Biberstein, Franz B. (1850-1930)
• Bierstadt, Albert (1830-1902)
• Bingham, George Caleb (1811-1879)
• Black, William Thurston (1816-1893)
• Bohrod, Aaron (1907-1992)
• Bond, Charles V. (c.1825-1864)
• Bowman, James (1793-1842)
• Bradish, Alvah (1806-1901)
• Brewer, Nicholas R. (1857-1949)
• Brockmann, H.
• Broich, Hugo (1832-1905)
• Brookes, Samuel Marsden (1816-1892)
• Buerki, Frederick A. (1902-1990)
• Byrd, D. Gibson (1923-2002)
• Cabanel, Alexandre (1823-1889)
• Carpenter, Francis Bicknell (1830-1900)
• Catlin, George (1796-1872)
• Catlin, Theodore Burr (1817-1889)
• Chappel, Alonzo (1828-1887)
• Clarkson, Ralph (1861-1942)
• Clifford, Rollin Alonzo (1835-1895)
• Coates, Samuel D. (1826-1907)
• Cogswell, William F. (1819-1903)
• Colburn, Helen Maria (1844-1912)
• Colt, Arthur Nicholson (1890-1972)
• Conant, Samuel Davis (1820-1913)
• Connah, Ferris
• Costaggini, Filippo (1837-1904)
• Craft, Rachel Mae (1938-1987)
• Cranch, John (1807-1891)
• Crandell, Bradshaw (1896-1966)
• Crump, Alice Miller (1894-1987)
• Curry, John Steuart (1897-1946)
• Curtiss, Eva Ann (1839-1920)
• Custer, Edward L. (1837-1881)
• Dadd, Frank (1851-1929)
• Dahlquist, Charles (1824-1902)
• Deming, Edwin Willard (1860-1942)
• Dengel, Isabella (1878-1904)
• Dietrich, Thomas M. (1912-1998)
• Doughty, Terry Glenn
• Drummy, M.C.
• Dumond, Maude S. Attoe (1898-1979)
• Durward, Bernard Isaac (1817-1902)
• Eaton, Isaac F. (b. 1839)
• Edwards, Clement R. (1820-1898)
• Elkins, Henry Arthur (1847-1884)
• Elsner, Albert William (b.1888)
• Flagg, George Whiting (1816-1897)
• Fosburgh, James Whitney (1910-1978)
• Gaddis, John (1821-1892)
• Gardner, Daniel (1750-1805)
• Gass, Alan (1917-2000)
• Gibson, John S.
• Grenhagen, Merton (1878-1941)
• Grilley, Robert L. (1920-2009)
• Hamlin, Amos C. (1814-1872)
• Harley, Katharine
• Harrison, Mark Robert (1819-1893)
• Head, William J.
• Healey, George Peter Alexander (1813-1894)
• Heine, Friedrich Wilhelm (1845-1921)
• Hensel, D.
• Heyd, Conrad W. (1837-1912)
• Higgins, Jayne
• Hodges, Charles Howard (1764-1837)
• Holst, Laurits Bernhard (1848-1934)
• Hope, James (1818-1892)
• Huntley, Samantha Littlefield (1865-1949)
• Hupeden, Ernest (1861-1911)
• Ingwersen, James J. (1930- )
• Ives, Lewis T. (1833-1894)
• Jewett, William (1792-1874)
• Johansen, John Christen (1876-1964)
• Johnson, C.A.
• Johnson, Eastman (1824-1906)
• Joran, Louis Grund (1830-1901)
• Josten, Martha
• Kammerude, Lavern (1915-1989)
• Kinstler, Everett Raymond (1926- )
• Kishner, Melvin A. (1915-1991)
• Klinger, Seferina Contreras
• Knutesen, Edwin B. (1901-1961)
• Lee, Isaac (1847-1926)
• Litch, Dorothy
• Litzenberg, D.
• Lund, Sevald Olsson (1852-1939)
• Lusk, Marie Koupal (1862-1929)
• Mancini, Antonio (1852-1930)
• Marine, John C. (1821-1896)
• Marr, Carl (1858-1936)
• Martin, Homer Dodge (1836-1897)
• Mayer, Louis B. (1869-1969)
• McCloy, William Ashby (1913-2000)
• McCready, Benjamin Donald (1952- )
• McEntee, William H. (1857-1919)
• Meryman, Richard Summer (1882-1963)
• Moeller, T.C.
• Nordfeldt, Bror Julius Olsson (1878-1955)
• Palmer, Randall (1807-1845)
• Parker, Lawton S. (1868-1954)
• Patch, George H. (1850-1935)
• Pease, Sarah L. (1854-1912)
• Pebbles, Frank Marion (1839-1928)
• Pollard, George (1920-2008)
• Pollard, Jim (1954- )
• Raine, Earle T. (1911-2005)
• Redfield, O.T.
• Rembski, Stanislav (1896-1998)
• Robert, Hubert (1733-1808)
• Rockey, Abraham B. (1799-1860)
• Ropinski, Edmund W. (1908-1984)
• Ropinski, Monica B. (1913-1983)
• Saintin, Jules Emile (1829-1894)
• Salter, Joel
• Sargent, John Singer (1851-1912)
• Schade, Robert (1861-1912)
• Schaldach, Kurt E. (1913-2008)
• Schneider, George W. (b. 1876)
• Scott, Everett D.
• Seifert, Paul (1840-1921)
• Seyffert, Leopold (1887-1956)
• Sharp, Jennifer
• Shirlaw, Walter (1838-1909)
• Sister Catharine
• Slafter, Alonzo (1801-1864)
• Stanley, Abram Ross (1816-1875)
• Stebbins, Roland Stewart (1883-1974)
• Stevenson, Thomas H. (b. 1817)
• Stoltenberg, Hans John (1879-1963)
• Stone, Seymour Millais (1877-1957)
• Stuart, Alexander Charles (1831-1898)
• Stuart, James Reeve (1834-1915)
• Sully, Robert Matthew (1803-1855)
• Sully, Thomas (1783-1872)
• Tank, Caroline Louisa Augusta (1803-1891)
• Thompson, Cephas (1775-1856)
• Thompson, Susy Kysely
• Thorsen, Alfred
• Thwaites, Charles Winstanley (1904-1959)
• Van der Meulen, Harriet
• Ver Bryck, William (1823-1899)
• Wachs, Lester (1909-1992)
• Waldo, Samuel Lovett (1783-1861)
• Warren, Seth K. (b. 1823)
• Watrous, James Scales (1908-1999)
• Winter, George (1810-1876)
• Yazzie, Richard K.
• Yewell, George Henry (1830-1923)
• Young, Fred Gant (b. 1859)
• Zeitler, Frank Herbert (1874-1940)

Individuals Featured as Subjects in Paintings in the Museum Collections

• Alexander, Edward Porter (1907-2003)
• Ames, Nathaniel (1761-1863)
• Anderson, Rasmus Bjorn (1846-1936)
• Arndt, John Penn (1780-1861)
• Atwood, David (1815-1889)
• Baird, Henry Samuel (1800-1875)
• Banta, George (1893-1977)
• Barstow, William Augusts (1813-1865)
• Bashford, Coles (1816-1878)
• Bevans, John
• Bingham, George B. (1822-1894)
• Birge, Edward Asahel (1851-1950)
• Black Hawk, Chief (1767-1838)
• Blaine, John James (1873-1934)
• Bracken, Charles (1797-1814)
• Bradley, Isaac Samuel (1853-1912)
• Bread, Daniel, Chief (1800-1873)
• Brigham, Ebenezer (1789-1861)
• Brookes, Samuel Marsden (1816-1892)
• Bull, Ole Borneman (1810-1880)
• Burrows, George Baxter (1832-1909)
• Butler, Ammi R.R. (1821-1901)
• Butler, James Davie (1815-1905)
• Callahan, John (1865-1956)
• Carpenter, Mathew Hale (1824-1881)
• Cass, Lewis (1782-1866)
• Catlin, John (1803-1874)
• Chase, Enoch (1809-1892)
• Clark, Darwin (1812-1899)
• Clark, George Rogers (1752-1818)
• Clinton, DeWitt (1769-1828)
• Clinton, Edmund D. (1804-1885)
• Clift, Mary Hazard (1754-1847)
• Coffin, William King (1850-1925)
• Conover, Sarah Dean Fairchild (1827-1912)
• Cothren, Montgomery Morrison (1819-1888)
• Crelie, Joseph (1771-1866)
• Crooks, Ramsay (1787-1859)
• Dadd, John Alfred (1829-1895)
• Darling, Mason C. (1801-1866)
• Davidson, James Ole (1854-1922)
• De Soto, Hernando (1496-1542)
• Demetral , Jimmy (1892-1978)
• Dewey, Catherine Dunn (1827-1898)
• Dewey, Nelson (1813-1889)
• Dodge, Henry (1782-1867)
• Doerflinger, Carl Herman (1843-1911)
• Doolittle, James Rood (1815-1897)
• Doty, James Duane (1799-1865)
• Dousman, Hercules Louis (1848-1886)
• Dousman, Hercules Louis (1800-1868)
• Dousman, Jane Fisher Rolette (1804-1882)
• Dousman, Nina Sturgis (1852-1930)
• Doyle, James Edward (1945-   )
• Drake, George C. (1842-1861)
• Draper, Lyman Copeland (1815-1891)
• Dreyfus, Lee Sherman (1926-2008)
• Duerst, Niklaus C. (1797-1874)
• Durrie, Daniel Steele (1819-1892)
• Earl, Anthony Scully (1936- )
• Eastman, Benjamin C. (1812-1856)
• Edwards, Clement R. (1820-1898)
• Ellis, Albert Gallatin (1800-1885)
• Erney, Richard A. (1924- )
• Everest, David Clark (1883-1955)
• Fairchild, Cassius (1829-1868)
• Fairchild, Jairus Cassius (1801-1862)
• Fairchild, Lucius (1831-1896)
• Fairchild, Sally Blair (1802-1866)
• Farwell, Leonard James (1819-1889)
• Fishel, Leslie H. (1921-2010)
• Fontanne, Lynn (1887-1983)
• Foster, Edward Newell (1810-1885)
• Frankenburger, Margaret (1885-197?)
• Gilson, Franklin L. (1846-1892)
• Goodland, Walter Samuel (1862-1947)
• Gratiot, Henry (1789-1836)
• Greeley, Horace (1811-1872)
• Gregory, Charles Noble (1851-1932)
• Gregory, John (1783-1880)
• Grignon, Augustin (1780-1860)
• Haan, William George (1863-1924)
• Hamilton, Charles Smith (1822-1891)
• Hanks, Lucien Stanley (1838-1926)
• Harrison, Mark Robert (1819-1894)
• Harvey, Lewis Powell (1820-1862)
• Harwood, Allen Penfield (1818-1893)
• Harwood, Frank James (1855-1940)
• Harwood, Hannah Ann Penfield (1820-1915)
• Hathaway, Joshua (1810-1863)
• Heffernan, Nathan S. (1920-2007)
• Heil, Julius Peter (1876-1949)
• Henni, John Martin (1805-1881)
• Hinckley, Benjamin Rudd (1809-1892)
• Hoard, William Dempster (1836-1918)
• Hobbins, Joseph (1816-1894)
• Holmes, Charlotte Breese Lewis (1859-1883)
• Holst, P.
• Horn, Frederick William (1815-1893)
• Howe, Timothy Otis (1816-1883)
• Hoxie, Vinnie Ream (1847-1914)
• Hyer, David (1793-1876)
• Iles, Thomas (c. 1775-c. 1848)
• Iles, Mary (1793-1866)
• Insull, Samuel (1859-1938)
• Iometah, Chief (c. 1772-1865)
• Jackson, Joseph (1812-1881)
• Jackson, Mortimer Melville (1809-1889)
• Jesus Christ (4 BC-33 AD)
• Juneau, Solomon (1793-1856)
• Kaltenborn, Hans Von (1878-1965)
• Kellogg, Louise Phelps (1862-1942)
• Kemper, Jackson (1789-1870)
• Keyes, Elisha Williams (1828-1910)
• Keyes, Joseph (1795-1874)
• Kilbourn, Byron (1801-1870)
• Knapp, Gilbert (1798-1887)
• Kneeland, Ellen Clarinda Martin (1811-1856)
• Kneeland, Moses (1809-1864)
• Knowles, Warren Perley (1908-1993)
• Kohler, Ruth Miriam De Young (1906-1953)
• Kohler, Walter Jodok (1875-1940)
• Kohler, Walter Jodok (1904-1976)
• Kuntz, Henry (1806-1895)
• Kuntz, Phebe Graf (1817-1917?)
• Kuoni, Conrad (1842-1930)
• Kynaston, William W. (1818-1909)
• La Follette, Phillip Fox (1897-1965)
• La Follette, Robert Marion (1855-1925)
• La Follette, Robert Marion (1895-1953)
• Lapham, Increase Allen (1811-1875)
• Leahy, William Daniel (1875-1959)
• Levitan, Solomon (1862-1940)
• Lewis, James Taylor (1819-1904)
• Lewis, Sophie May (1866-1950)
• Lockwood, James Henry (1793-1857)
• Lookaround, Angus Franklin (1893-1946)
• Loomis, Orland Steen (1893-1942)
• Lord, Clifford Lee (1912-1980)
• Lucey, Patrick Joseph (1918- )
• Ludington, Harrison (1812-1891)
• Lunt, Alfred (1892-1977)
• Lyon, Sydney Smith (1808-1872)
• MacArthur, Arthur (1815-1896)
• Madison, James (1751-1836)
• Magoon, Richard H. (1799-1875)
• Manning, Nellie Jane (1866-1873)
• Martin, Morgan Lewis (1805-1887)
• Mazzuchelli, Samuel Charles (1806-1864)
• McCormick, Cyrus Hall (1809-1884)
• McCormick, Nettie Fowler (1835-1923)
• McCormick, Robert Laird (1847-1911)
• McGovern, Francis Edward (1866-1946)
• McLane, George Read (1819-1855)
• Meeker, Moses (1790-1865)
• Merrill, Sherburn Sanborn (1818-1885)
• Meyers, Della May (b. 1884)
• Miller, Andrew Galbraith (1801-1874)
• Mills, Simeon (1810-1895)
• Mitchell, Alexander (1817-1887)
• Morrison, James (1799-1860)
• Moshuebee (1742-1867)
• Muller, H. Nicholas (1938- )
• Murphy, Robert Brady Lawrence (1901-2001)
• Nasheakusk
• Nelson, Gaylord Anton (1916-2005)
• Nettleton, Mary Ann LeClair (1797-1885)
• Oshkosh, Chief (1795-1858)
• Pabst, Frederick (1836-1904)
• Parker, Amine Currier Pratt (1813-1883)
• Parker, Joseph Warren Downes (1808-1865)
• Parker, Marion Amine (1835-1875)
• Parker, Warren Downes (1839-1920)
• Parkinson, Daniel Morgan (1790-1868)
• Parkinson, Peter (1812-1895)
• Peck, George Wilbur (1840-1916)
• Peck, Roseline Willard (1808-1899)
• Percival, James Gates (1795-1856)
• Philipp, Emanuel Lorenz (1861-1925)
• Pier, Edward (1807-1877)
• Pocahontas (c. 1595-1617)
• Preusser, Louise Hermann (1832-1886)
• Proxmire, William (1915-2005)
• Pyncheon, Adeline D. Stewart (1811-1889)
• Pyncheon, William (1804-1872)
• Quaife, Milo Milton (1880-1959)
• Quinney, Austin Eetowokaum (1791-1865)
• Quinney, Jane Ashatoma (b. 1799)
• Quinney, John Wannuaucon (1797-1855)
• Randall, Alexander Williams (1819-1872)
• Rennebohm, Oscar (1889-1968)
• Reynolds, John Whitcome (1921-2002)
• Roberts, John Griffith (1809-1874)
• Roberts, Mary Catherine (1812-1878)
• Rolette, Virginia (1823-1839)
• Rountree, John Hawkins (1805-1890)
• Rublee, Horace (1829-1896)
• Rusk, Jeremiah McClain (1830-1893)
• Salomon, Edward P. (1828-1909)
• Sanford, Albert Hart (1866-1956)
• Sawyer, Melvina M. Hadley (1825-1888)
• Sawyer, Philetus (1816-1900)
• Schafer, Joseph (1867-1941)
• Schaffer, Caroline Paulding
• Schmedeman, Albert George (1864-1946)
• Schreiber, Martin James (1939- )
• Scofield, Edward (1842-1925)
• Sellery, George Clarke (1872-1962)
• Sheldon, John P. (1792-1871)
• Shipman, Stephen Vaughan (1825-1905)
• Skinner, Jessie Russell Lewis (b. 1863)
• Slaughter, Julia (b. 1817)
• Slaughter, William Banks (1791-1879)
• Smith, Abraham Hyatt (1814-1892)
• Smith, Abram Daniel (1811-1865)
• Smith, George Baldwin (1823-1879)
• Smith, James Morton (1919-2012)
• Smith, Perry H. (1828-1885)
• Smith, William E. (1824-1883)
• Smith, William Rudolph (1787-1868)
• Souligny, Chief (c. 1785-1864)
• Sproat, Florantha Thompson (1811-1883)
• Starkweather, John Converse (1830-1890)
• Steensland, Halle (1832-1910)
• Sterling, Levi (1804-1868)
• Stevenson, Thomas H. (1817-1882/89)
• Stirn, August (1826-1916)
• Stow, Alexander Wolcott (1805-1854)
• Strong, Moses McCure (1810-1894)
• Sutherland, James (1820-1905)
• Sweet, Alanson (1804-1891)
• Tallmadge, Abigail Louise Smith (1804-1857)
• Tallmadge, Nathaniel Pitcher (1795-1864)
• Tank, Nils Otto (1800-1864)
• Taylor, Stephen (1807-1877)
• Taylor, William Robert (1820-1909)
• Terry, John B. (1796-1874)
• Thompson, James H. (1835-1891)
• Thompson, Tommy George (1941- )
• Thomson, Vernon Wallace (1905-1988)
• Thwaites, Reuben Gold (1853-1913)
• Titus, Wiiliam Albert (1868-1951)
• Townsend, Absalom A. (1810-1888)
• Upham, William Henry (1841-1924)
• Van der Meulen, Harriet
• Van der Meulen, Wilhelmina (1773-1822)
• Van der Meulen, Wihelmina
• Van der Meulen, Rijnhard Jan (1768-1849)
• Vieau, Andrew Jacques (1819-1888)
• Vilas, Anna Matilda Fox (1845-1922)
• Vilas, Henry (1872-1899)
• Vilas, William Freeman (1840-1908)
• Vogt, George L.
• Wabokieshiek (c. 1794-c. 1841)
• Walker, Isaac Pigeon (1813-1872)
• Walpole, Horace (1717-1797)
• Washburn, Cadwallader Colden (1818-1882)
• Washington, George (1732-1799)
• Washington, Martha Dandridge Curtis (1731-1802)
• Waumegesako, Chief (c. 1789-1844)
• Wheeler, Marcus Hartwell (1808-1899)
• Wheeler, Marcus Pratt (b. 1837)
• Wheeler, Sarah Jane Pratt (1814-1906)
• White, Johsua (1814-1890)
• Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)
• Whitney, Daniel (1795-1862)
• Wight, William Ward (1849-1931)
• Wilcox, Randall (1793-1872)
• Williams, Eleazer (c. 1788-1858)
• Woodman, Cyrus (1814-1889)
• Yellow Thunder, Chief (c. 1774-1874)