The County Election

Inscriptions

Printed, lower left: PAINTED BY G.C. BINGHAM; center: ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS IN THE YEAR 1854 BY G.C. BINGHAM IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. / THE COUNTY ELECTION. / PUBLISHED BY GOUPIL & CO. NEW YORK-PARIS-LONDON.; lower right: ENGRAVED BY JOHN SARTAIN.

Label

The buzz and whir of democracy punctuated the mid19th century, as party politics become a defining feature of American life. The artist and politician George Caleb Bingham gave classic expression to the era’s boisterous partisanship in an acclaimed series of three large painted canvases. This print, based on the central image of that cycle, depicts the hubbub of Election Day. Bingham’s composition carefully arranges varied activity: debauchery coincides with impassioned appeal; newspaper reading engages one potential voter, while a flattering politician, tipping his hat, approaches another. An isolated citizen at the top of the stairs registers his choice publicly, raising his hand with all the solemnity of a self-governing people.

My Dartmouth students see The County Election through this high-quality print marketed to middleclass consumers. Such purchasers would likely have given little thought to the startling absences that today’s students tend to notice right away. Politics at this moment was an all-male affair, open to nonvoting boys while excluding women altogether. A man with a dark face serves refreshment with little else to offer, even as tensions surrounding black slavery were quickly overtaking all other issues at the precise moment when Bingham crafted his scene.

From the 2019 exhibition American Art, Colonial to Modern, curated by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art

Course History

ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Joy Kenseth, Marlene Heck, Winter 2012

ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Katie Hornstein, Jane Carroll, Winter 2013

HIST 18, US Political History of the 19th Century, Robert Bonner, Fall 2012

HIST 27, WGST 23, Gender and Power in American History from the Colonial Period to the Civil War, Leslie Butler, Spring 2012

ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Katie Hornstein, Jane Carroll, Winter 2013

HIST 18, Nineteenth Century American Politics, Robert Bonner, Spring 2014

ENGL 29, American Fiction to 1900, Colleen Boggs, Spring 2014

Exhibition History

American Art, Colonial to Modern, Israel Sack Gallery and Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-July 21, 2019.

American Intellectual and Cultural History Through the Civil War, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, History 30, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 10-September 6, 1992.

American Works on Paper to 1950: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Friends and Owen Robertson Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 22-December 9, 2007.

Hogarth's Election Entertainment: Artists at the Hustings, Sir John Soane's Museum, checklist no. 35, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, March 23-August 25, 2001; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, October 6, 2001-January 6, 2002.

The American Scene: Views of Everyday Life, 1840-1890, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, ArtH50, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 27-September 6, 1998.

Unlayering Stereotypes: Selections from the Permanent Collection For Teaching Cultural Anthropology, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Anthropology 7, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 24-August 20, 1995.

Publication History

Stephanie Eu, "Hogarth and Bingham", in David Bindman, David Ekserdjian and Will Palin, eds., Hogarth's Election Entertainment: Artists at the Hustings, London: Apollo Magazine for Sir John Soane's Museum, 2001, pp. 20-22, ill, p.21, catalogue entry number 35, p. 30

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 154-5, no. 125.

Provenance

The Old Print Shop, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 1951.

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