American Painter - Samuel Colman

COLMAN WAS BORN IN PORTLAND. MAINE, and came to New York to study with Asher B. Durand. Later he studied in France and Spain, and became a member of the National Academy in 1862. With the painting. Emigrant Train, Colman paid tribute to the pioneer spirit that dared push westward "the course of empire." The artist painted this picture in 1870, one year after the transcontinental railroad put an end to covered-wagon travel. Following the hazardous route of the Pony Express from Missouri to California, the Emigrant Train is fording Medicine Bow Creek in the Rocky Mountains near Laramie, Wyo.