Gilbert Davis Munger was born in Madison, Connecticut in 1837. Although he was never a full-time resident of Utah, he painted many luminist style paintings of Utah scenes. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1903.

Because he demonstrated an early talent in art, Munger's family sent him to Washington, D.C. where he became an apprentice engraver in 1830. In 1866, he began a career as a professional artist, maintaining studios in New York, St. Paul and Duluth, Minnesota.

A prime example of Munger's work is The Wasatch Mountains with Salt Lake City and Great Salt Lake (1877), a studio painting made from his sketches in Utah, which is held in the collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

Gilbert Davis Munger (1837-1903) was a landscape painter who worked in the Utah area in the 1870s. Munger did a fine luminist view of The Wasatch Mountains with Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake in the Foreground in 1877 (Utah Museum of Fine Arts). This creation may be the very finest painting in the luminist style ever done in this state. The artist was simply in Utah because of his official duties with government, reportedly as official member of the 1869 United States Geodetic Survey party that camped near Salt Lake City during the time. There may be some added local interest in the fact that pioneer photographer C.R. Savage also joined the group for a period during their sojourn in Utah Territory.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah.

Books

Baird, Joseph Armstrong, Jr. Views of Yosemite The Last Stance of the Romantic Landscape. Fresno, CA: The Center, 1982.

Carr, Carolyn K. Revisiting the White City American Art at the 1893 World's Fair. Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1993.

Coen, Rena Neumann. Painting and Sculpture in Minnesota, 1820-1914. Minneapolis: Published by the University of Minnesota Press for the University Gallery of the University of Minnesota, 1976.

Cosentino, Andrew, and H. H. Glassie. The Capital Image Painters in Washington 1800-1915. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983.

Cuthbert, John A. Early Art and Artists in West Virginia. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2000.

Davenport, Ray. Davenport's Art Reference. Ventura, CA: Davenport's Art Reference, 2001.

Dawdy, Doris. Artists of the American West A Biographical Dictionary. Chicago, IL: Sage Books, 1974.

Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson, ed. The Artists Bluebook. Scottsdale, AZ: Ask ART.com, 2003.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Dictionary of Signatures & Monogram. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1988.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art Artists Active 1898-1947. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1985.

Gerdts, William. Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting in America 1710-1920. New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1990.

Heckscher Museum. American Painting. Huntington, CA: Heckscher Museum, 1975.

Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California: 1786-1940. San Francisco, CA: Hughes Pub. Co., 2002.

Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge. Index of Artists International Biographical. New York, NY: Smith, 1948.

Naylor, Marchia. Exhibition Record 1861-1900 National Academy of Design. New York, NY: Kennedy Galleries, 1973.

O'Connor, William Van, ed. A History of the Arts in Minnesota. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1958.

Olpin, Robert S, William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, l999.

Orr-Cahill, Christina. The Art of California Selected Works Oakland Museum. Oakland, CA: Chronicle Books, 1984.

Samuels, Peggy and Harold Samuels. Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.

Stebbins, Theodore E., and Galina Gorokhoff. A Checklist of American Paintings at Yale University. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, Donna Poulton, and Janie L. Rogers. 150 Year Survey Utah Art & Artists. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2002.

Sweeney, J. Gray. Great Lakes Marine Painting of the Nineteenth Century. Muskegon, MI: The Museum, 1983.

Trenton, Patricia, and Peter H. Hassrick. The Rocky Mountains: A Vision for Artists in the Nineteenth Century. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983.

Wilmerding, John. The Waters of America: 19th-Century American Paintings of Rivers, Streams, Lakes, and Waterfalls. New Orleans, LA: Historic New Orleans Collection, 1984.

Wright, R Lewis. Artists in Virginia before 1900: An Annotated Checklist. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1983.

Zellman, Michael David. 300 Years Years of American Art. Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 1987.

Periodicals

Cummings, Hildegard. "William Benton Museum of Art." American Art Review, June 1997.

Harrison, Alfred C. Jr "Luminist Paintings in California." Magazine Antiques, November 2001.

South, Will. "The Great Salt Lake." Southwest Art, March 1996.