DIA Inside|Out: Fur Traders at Suburban Collection Showplace

Two fur traders and their canoe join the businesspeople outside Suburban Collection Showplace this summer.

The traders are the subjects of the painting The Trappers’ Return by George Caleb Bingham, which is on display in front of the showplace until late August.

It’s one of six pieces on display in Novi this summer as part of the Detroit Institute of Art’s Inside|Out program, which brings waterproof reproductions of masterpieces to the streets of metro Detroit communities.

Novi Patch is featuring all six of Novi’s pieces this week.

The placard next to the painting says that it depicts a French fur trapper and his half-Native American son coming home with their catch along the Missouri River.

"The artist positions the trappers so it seems as though we look at them from a canoe nearby," the placard reads. "In the 1850's, pictures like this shaped popular understanding of life on the frontier."

The original painting is on display at the DIA.

Novi was one of 11 cities in metro Detroit chosen to display artwork. Read more about the program and see a map of the other paintings in Novi here.

Here is Novi Patch's schedule for profiling the paintings:

• Tuesday—Self-Portrait by Vincent van Gogh
• Wednesday— by Martin Johnson Heade
• Thursday— by John-Joseph Taillasson
• Friday—The Trappers’ Return by George Caleb Bingham
• Saturday—Konigsee by Willibald Wex
• Sunday—Woman in an Armchair by Pierre-Auguste Renoir