Gilbert Munger

[1][2] Among his tasks was to produce engravings for government reports, and he turned out plates of animals, birds, fish, reptiles, and plants related to the scientific work of Louis Agassiz and the explorations of Commodore Charles Wilkes.

[4] Munger's association with the expedition's scientists and with photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan was instrumental in shaping him as one of a new generation of artists who foregrounded optical accuracy over allegory in their landscape work.

[4] In this phase of his career, he made San Francisco his home base, and he became a recognized figure in the Bay Area art world and part of the cultural circle centered on Bret Harte's Overland Monthly.

For their expansive grandeur, Munger's paintings were frequently compared to those of Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, but his work differs from theirs in its greater attention to scientifically observed detail.

[1] In general, his European paintings are more atmospheric than his landscapes of the American West, showing the influence of J. M. W. Turner as well as of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and other painters of the Barbizon School.

[1] He even took a side trip into writing, turning out a three-act comedy, Madelaine Marston, that was produced at the Theatre Royal in London in 1886 with Helen Barry in the cast.

[3][5] He preferred to sell his work by word of mouth, and thus when he returned to America after a 15-year absence, he was unable to count on the assistance of a dealer in reintroducing him to his home market.