The County Election

George Caleb Bingham's outdoor scene of American small-town election voting features a motley gathering of men—young and old, genteel and rustic, earnest and rowdy. (Women, who did not have the right to vote in Bingham's day, are conspicuously absent.) At the front of a building on the right, a well-dressed figure administers an oath to a citizen about to cast his ballot, while a man gallantly tipping his hat solicits support from another prospective voter. The crowd includes men engaged in canvassing and arguing, presumably about the current election, and the possible violence engendered by differing opinions is indicated by the defeated brawler who sits slumped over on a bench at the lower right, his wounded head tied up in a kerchief. Alcohol clearly plays an important role in the boisterous democratic process: flanking the composition at left, a black man serves a drink to a reveling customer; and in the meandering line of voters one citizen holds an inebriated fellow upright. While the image glorifies American democracy, it also chronicles several abuses of the political process, such as drinking and electioneering near the polling place.

Commissioned by Bingham, this print by the renowned Philadelphia engraver John Sartain is a close copy of Bingham's oil painting of the same title (1851–52, St. Louis Art Museum). Sartain spent two years precisely translating the forms, textures, and anecdotal details of the original painting into line engraving and mezzotint tone; this impression is one of several that were later hand-colored. While Sartain was copying his painting, Bingham painted a second, slightly altered and larger version (1852, National Bank of Saint Louis), which he toured to solicit subscriptions for the print. By 1854, when the engraving (which incorporated the second painting's revisions) was completed, Bingham had obtained nearly one thousand print orders. From its New York City offices, the French print publisher Goupil & Company handled the tedious business of tracking down each subscriber for delivery of the print and payment, thereby freeing Bingham to pursue painting and politics. Besides supplementing his income from painting, sales of the print further broadcast the artist's reputation.

By the time he painted The County Election, Bingham was a Missouri artist of rural frontier life celebrated for such works as his series of paintings of riverboat workers, of which The Jolly Flatboatmen (TF 1992.15) is a later example. In 1848, Bingham was elected a representative to the state legislature in his home state of Missouri after losing a contest for the post two years earlier. This experience prompted his artistic exploration of politics; he was also inspired by images by other artists, notably satirical English artist William Hogarth (1697–1764), whose work he knew from reproductive prints. Personally close to the subject of politics on the frontier, Bingham pictured actual individuals in The County Election. The man on the stairs soliciting votes, for example, is a likeness of Bingham's political rival Darwin Sappington, who won the 1846 election by corrupt means. The artist's son is shown in the black cap playing the game mumblety-peg in the foreground, and Bingham himself is seated near the center of the image, wearing a top-hat and sketching as another man admires the results. The County Election is regarded as one of Bingham's most important works, and Sartain's print is considered a technical masterpiece.

[possibly exhibited] Selections from the Permanent Collection: Life in 19th Century America, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 24–September 6, 1987.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]

Rusk, Fern Helen. George Caleb Bingham: The Missouri Artist. Jefferson City, Missouri: The Hugh Stephens Company, 1917, p. 59.

Bender, J. H. "Catalogue of Engravings and Lithographs after George C. Bingham." The Print Collector's Quarterly 27 (February 1940): 106–108. No. 2, p. 106.

McDermott, John Francis. George Caleb Bingham: River Portraitist. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959. Text pp. 93–97; pl. 43, p. 239 (black & white).

Bloch, E. Maurice. George Caleb Bingham: A Catalog Raisonné. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1967. No. P9, pp. 220–21.

Rash, Nancy. The Paintings and Politics of George Caleb Bingham. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1991. Text pp. 136-40, 220; fig. 45, p. 137 (black & white).

Shapiro, Michael Edward, Barbara Groseclose, Elizabeth Johns, Paul C. Nagel and John Wilmerding. George Caleb Bingham. (exh. cat., The St. Louis Art Museum). St. Louis, Missouri and New York: The St. Louis Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1990. Text pp. 92–94, 96-103; ill. p. 96 (black & white).