John Caspar Wild

Cincinnati from behind Newport Barracks, 1835

John Caspar Wild (or J.C. Wild<ref name=WDL1/>) (1804 – August 12, 1846) was a Swiss-American painter and lithographer. He created early city views and landscapes of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Davenport, Iowa.<ref name="WDL1" />

Wild specialized in hand-colored lithographs. These views, particularly the Valley of the Mississippi Illustrated, were some of the first depictions of the American West.

Early life

Wild was born in Richterswil in the Canton of Zürich<ref name="ReferenceA">John Caspar Wild: Painter and Printmaker of 19th Century Urban America, John W. Reps. Page1</ref> in Switzerland.

Career

He moved to Paris, France. In 1832, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<ref name=WDL1>Template:Cite web</ref> He later moved to St. Louis, Missouri.<ref>John Caspar Wild: Painter and Printmaker of 19th Century Urban America, John W. Reps. Page 95</ref> In summer 1844, he moved a final time, to Davenport, Iowa, a small town in the upper Mississippi River Valley.

Wild fell gravely ill with tuberculosis<ref name="ReferenceB">Geschichte der Stadt Davenport, August P. Richter, Page 293</ref> in the summer of 1846, and he was taken in by Davenport millinery businessman George L. Webb.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> On his deathbed, Wild reflected upon his childhood and said that he yearned to die in homeland in Switzerland, but it was a wish that was to not be fulfilled.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> Wild died on August 12, 1846.<ref>John Caspar Wild: Painter and Printmaker of 19th Century Urban America, John W. Reps. Page 105</ref> Wild was laid to rest nearly on the banks of the river, which he had painted for years. Wild's grave site was unmarked for decades.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notable collections

• University of Pennsylvania, 1842, from collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia<ref name=WDL1/>

University of Pennsylvania campus, located on the west side of 9th Street between Market and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia, in hand colored lithograph created in 1842 by John Caspar Wild of Penn's then Medical Hall (left) and College Hall (right), both built 1829–1830

• Pennsylvania Hospital, circa 1840, Library Company of Philadelphia<ref name=WDL2>Template:Cite web</ref>

Further reading

• Reps, John William, and J. C. Wild. 2006. John Caspar Wild: painter and printmaker of nineteenth-century urban America. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press. Template:ISBN Designed by Steve Hartman of Creativille, Inc. [1]
• Wild, J. C., and Lewis Foulk Thomas. 1948. The valley of the Mississippi: illustrated in a series of views, accompanied with historical descriptions. St. Louis, Mo: Joseph Garnier. (this is a reprint; original edition published 1841–2)

External links

• John Cushman Abbott Exhibit Supplement includes a discussion of Wild and his book The Valley of the Mississippi Illustrated in a Series of Views, a slide show of illustrations from the book, and a downloadable pdf of the book.
• Missouri Remembers: Artists in Missouri through 1951