"Just Fishing" from a private collection. Photography by Jenifer Cady.

Painter George Van Millett (1864-1953) captured the gentle appeal of Missouri’s countryside and domestic interiors, considering them fully as worthy as their European counterparts. Known as the dean of Kansas City art for more than half a century, Millett helped promote an aesthetic sensibility in a town dominated by industry and the demands of commercial progress. Millett was instrumental in helping to form the nucleus of the Kansas City Art Institute, and he played a significant role in laying the groundwork for launching the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. While he established a fine reputation as a portraitist of numerous men and women who were pioneers in the early development of Kansas City, Millett produced an oeuvre that was multifaceted and rich in style and subject matter. From tranquil landscapes to finely observed portraits and Impressionistic cityscapes, Millett painted what he knew and loved. He was the only painter of note who had devoted his work exclusively to Missouri subjects since George Caleb Bingham.

George Van Millett was a true native son, a proud descendent of Missouri settlers. His grandmother’s family immigrated to Missouri by wagon train from Kentucky in 1813. His father, Henry Millett, was dubbed “printer to Kansas City’s pioneers.”