calsfoundation@cals.org
March 23, 2010
Edward Washbourne is perhaps the most famous artist of antebellum Arkansas. His greatest claim to fame is as the creator of one of the Western frontier’s most memorable genre scenes, The Arkansas Traveler. Born in Pope County in 1831, Washbourne received his first formal art training at Fort Smith (Sebastian County) in 1851. He became well known for traveling the state and painting portraits of the wealthy. He suddenly became ill and died while in Little Rock (Pulaski County) in 1860; he is buried in the city’s Mount Holly Cemetery.