The County Election by George Caleb Bingham
Later Printing, by David Ashley, Inc. NYC, 1954
Framed 27 ½ x 33 ½ inches

George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) was a Missouri genre painter particularly interested in creating works related to the American democratic process. In The County Election, he included various people gathered in a Missouri country setting to hear political speeches. He hoped that The County Election would appeal to the American Art-Union, purchaser of a major American painting each year to provide subjects for engravings for its members, but the organization declined. Bingham subsequently published the work himself, securing the services of Philadelphia engraver, John Sartain, who had engraved works of major painters, including Benjamin West, John Neagle, and Thomas Doughty.

The original painting (Saint Louis Art Museum) was one of a series of paintings Bingham created in the 1840-50s depicting American democracy and political life in the Western frontier. Collectively the paintings have come to be known as his Election Series, with County Election, 1852 being the most famous of the political works.

One of the classic images of the mid-nineteenth-century America, the popularity of this subject and the demand for copies resulted in numerous engravings and printings for this image of American democracy in action. 

$600