Fur Traders Descending the Missouri

At the prow of George Caleb Bingham's canoe, a small black animal sits chained and stares straight out at the viewer. Nobody knows what it is. Some art historians see a bear cub. Some see a black fox. Some see a wolverine. Some see, unmistakably, a house cat. One theory holds that Bingham was painting a wolverine from memory but used a house cat as a live model. The animal is either the point of the painting or the most Bingham could hide inside it. The painting's original title was 'French Trader, Half Breed Son.' The American Art Union changed the title before exhibition. The animal at the prow remains one of American art's most-argued small objects. Now at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York @metmuseum