John Caspar Wild

John Casper Wild was a painter and printmaker who was known for lithographic views of towns and cities along the Mississippi River in the 1840s. Praised for the accuracy of these views, his images of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Cincinnati, Ohio; and St. Louis, Missouri, are among the earliest renderings of those cities. 

Born in Switzerland, Wild studied art and lived in Paris for fifteen years. During this time he developed his skill as a painter of landscapes, townscapes and panoramas of cities, including Paris and Venice, Italy. 

In 1832 Wild immigrated to the United States, where he lived in Philadelphia and then Cincinnati between 1833-1837. In Philadelphia he worked with Charles Fenderich in the lithography firm Fenderich and Wild. In both cities, Wild painted and created lithographic landscapes documenting the early development of these towns. In 1838, Wild established a partnership with lithographer J.B. Chevalier in Philadelphia. In collaboration with Chevalier, Wild made twenty views of Philadelphia and published a book with text by Andrew M’Makin titled Views of Philadelphia and Its Vicinity.

Wild moved to St. Louis in 1839. Soon after his arrival, he published a lithograph of St. Louis from the Illinois shore of the Mississippi River. Wild continued to document the city; in 1840 he published eight Views of St. Louis, and in 1842 he published a panorama of St. Louis composed of four lithographs to create a complete view of the city. For these lithographs, Wild controlled the entire creative process: He painted the original artwork, drew the image on the stone, and published the final print.

Wild’s major work is the publication The Valley of the Mississippi Illustrated in a Series of Views. This book was issued in monthly sets of four views each with “historical descriptions” by Lewis Foulk Thomas. The publication included views of St. Louis, St. Charles, and Carondelet, Missouri, and sites in Illinois. The lithographs were published beginning in July 1841 and continued monthly until March 1842. Wild planned to create fifty views, but because the project was not a commercial success he completed only thirty-two.

In the early 1840s, Wild traveled in Illinois and documented cities throughout the state. In 1844, Wild moved to Davenport, Iowa, of which he created a painting that was used as a model for a lithograph. In 1844, Wild traveled to Minnesota, where he created paintings of both Fort Snelling and the Falls of St. Anthony. He also created works of views of other towns in Iowa, including Dubuque and Muscatine, as well as Moline and Galena, Illinois.