View source for George Caleb Bingham

{{Short description|American artist (1811–1879)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = George Caleb Bingham
| image = George Caleb Bingham - Self-Portrait of the Artist.jpg
| imagesize = 
| caption = A [[self-portrait]] by George Caleb Bingham, painted 1834–35
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = {{birth date |1811|3|20}}
| birth_place = [[Augusta County, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age |1879|7|7|1811|3|20}}
| death_place =[[Kansas City, Missouri]], U.S.
| field = Painting
| training = [[Autodidact]]<br />(study of prints of Old Masters and copybooks)<br />[[Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts]]
| movement = [[Luminism (American art style)|Luminism]]
| works = 
| patrons = 
| influenced by =
| influenced =
| awards = 
}}
'''George Caleb Bingham''' (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an American artist, soldier and politician known in his lifetime as "the Missouri Artist".<ref name="shsmo.org">{{Cite web|url=https://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/b/bingham/|title=George Caleb Bingham|access-date=2018-11-30|archive-date=2018-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201094726/https://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/b/bingham/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Initially a [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]], he was elected as a delegate to the Missouri legislature before the [[American Civil War]] where he fought against the extension of slavery westward. During that war, although born in Virginia, Bingham was dedicated to the Union cause and became captain of a volunteer company which helped keep the state from joining the Confederacy, and then served four years as [[State Treasurer of Missouri|Missouri's treasurer]]. During his final years, Bingham held several offices in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], while also serving as Missouri's Adjutant General.<ref>Daniel M. Grissom, "George Caleb Bingham" Encyclopedia of Missouri (1901) vol. 1 pp. 274-275</ref> His paintings of American frontier life along the [[Missouri River]] exemplify the [[Luminism (American art style)|Luminist]] style.<ref name="bloch_1986">EM Bloch (1986) ''The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalog Raissoné'', [[University of Missouri Press]].</ref>

==Early life and education==
Born on a farm in [[Augusta County, Virginia]],<ref name="Marquis 1607-1896">''Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607–1896'' (Marquis Who's Who, 1967).</ref> George Caleb Bingham was the second of seven children that Mary Amend (1789–1851) bore with her husband Henry Vest Bingham (1784–1823). Upon their marriage, Mary's father Matthias Amend gave the Binghams ownership of the family mill, {{convert|1180|acre|km2}} land, and several [[slaves]] with the agreement that Matthias could live with the family for the rest of his life. Henry Bingham offered the land and mill as surety for a friend's debt and, when the friend died in 1818, all was lost.<ref>1810 U.S. Federal Census for Rockingham County, Virginia (adjacent to Augusta County) shows Henry Bingham as owning 6 slaves</ref> In 1819, the Bingham family (including grandfather Amend) moved to [[Franklin, Missouri]], on the [[Missouri River]] near the state's center as well as the eastern terminus of the [[Santa Fe Trail]], "where the land was said to be bountiful, fertile and cheap."<ref name="Nagel">Nagel, Paul C., "The Man and His Times," in ''George Caleb Bingham'', ed. Michael Edward Shapiro (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990).</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/c0999.pdf|title=Henry Vest Bingham's diary of the journey is held by the Missouri Historical Society|website=shsmo.org|accessdate=Mar 13, 2023|archive-date=December 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201093133/https://shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/c0999.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

George Bingham was initially educated by his mother, and self-taught as an artist. His sole childhood exposure to a working artist was as a nine-year-old boy, when famed American portraitist [[Chester Harding (painter)|Chester Harding]] visited Franklin looking for business, having recently sketched [[Daniel Boone]] in [[Warren County, Missouri]] (Boone's sons owned a salt spring and manufactured salt in Howard County). George assisted Harding during his brief stay, an experience that left a powerful impression.<ref name="Nagel" />
[[File:George Caleb Bingham - Boatmen on the Missouri - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Boatmen on the Missouri,'' 1846, [[Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco]]]]

On December 23, 1823, Bingham's father Henry, who had initially opened a tavern in Franklin and in 1821 become the judge of the Howard County Court, died of [[malaria]] at the age of thirty-eight. His investment in a tobacco venture had failed, and debts forced the sale of the home in Franklin. The young sons barely kept their small farm in nearby [[Saline County, Missouri|Saline County]] afloat, in part with the help of their father's brother John, who had moved to the area and donated half the land which became [[Arrow Rock, Missouri|Arrow Rock]].<ref name="Missouri cyclopedia">Missouri cyclopedia</ref> Mary Bingham opened a school for girls on the farmstead. George, then twelve, worked as the school janitor, and later received some art tutoring when the school hired Mattie Wood as an art teacher.<ref name="shsmo.org"/>

At age sixteen, the young Bingham was apprenticed to [[cabinet maker]] Jesse Green in nearby [[Boonville, Missouri|Boonville]] in [[Cooper County, Missouri|Cooper County]]. After Green moved away (a major flood of the Missouri River having destroyed much of Franklin and other riverside towns in 1827), Bingham apprenticed with another cabinet maker, Justinian Williams. Both tradesmen were [[Methodism|Methodist]] [[Minister (Christianity)|ministers]]. While under their tutelage, Bingham studied religious texts, preached at [[camp meeting]]s and thought about becoming a minister in his [[Baptists|Baptist Church]] (in which he would remain active throughout his life).<ref name="Missouri cyclopedia"/> He also considered becoming a lawyer.<ref name="Nagel" /> His elder brother Matthias Bingham would travel to Texas to fight for its independence in 1836, and remain in Mexico until his death in 1861, becoming a large landowner in the process but never marrying.<ref name="digital.shsmo.org">{{Cite web|url=https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/mhr/id/38541|title=Page 426|website=digital.shsmo.org|accessdate=Mar 13, 2023}}</ref>

By age nineteen, Bingham was painting portraits for $20.00 apiece, often completing the works in a single day. He found clients in Howard and Saline counties and nearby areas. Though his painting abilities were still developing, he impressed his [[patrons]] by strong draftsmanship as well as his native ability to capture his subject's likeness, and he was able to support himself by this work by 1833. Soon Bingham was ready to travel to [[St. Louis]] to ply his trade, but contracted [[measles]]. The illness left him weak and permanently bald.<ref name="Christ-Janer">Christ-Janer, Albert, ''George Caleb Bingham: Frontier Painter of Missouri'', New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1975</ref>

By 1838, Bingham had established a studio in St. Louis, the state's major city ([[Jefferson City, Missouri|Jefferson City]], also on the Missouri River and nearer his home, was the state capital), and was beginning to make a name as a portrait artist. Several prominent local citizens visited his studio for portraits, including the lawyer [[James S. Rollins]] of [[Columbia, Missouri]], who became a lifelong friend as well as a powerful politician in the state. While Bingham frequently worked in St. Louis, he kept his principal residence in Arrow Rock for years.

Bingham then decided to try formal education in the east, and moved with his young wife to [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, where he spent three years studying art at the [[Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts]], including a trip to New York City to visit the [[National Academy of Design]] exhibition.<ref>Missouri Cyclopedia</ref><ref name="Christ-Janer" /> Bingham then spent nearly five years in [[Washington, D.C.]], where he painted portraits of various politicians, including former president [[John Quincy Adams]], who had become a member of Congress and famous abolitionist.<ref name="Missouri cyclopedia"/>

==Marriage and family==
[[File:Mrs George Caleb Bingham (Sarah Elizabeth Hutchison) and Son, Newton by George Caleb Bingham.jpg|thumb|His first wife, Sarah, and eldest son, Newton, who died when 4 years old. (George Caleb Bingham, ca 1841)]]
In 1836, the year Missouri expanded with the [[Platte Purchase]] of former Native American territory (thus violating the [[Missouri Compromise]] of 1820 which had led to the state's creation), 25-year-old Bingham married 18-year-old Sarah Elizabeth Hutchison (1818–1848), who bore him four children before her death. From 1837 to 1845 they lived in [[Arrow Rock, Missouri|Arrow Rock]] in Saline County, where their house has been designated a [[National Historic Landmark]]. She died in 1848 at the age of twenty-nine.<ref name="Nagel" /> Bingham's mother Mary helped him raise his children before she died in 1851.<ref name="Nagel" />

Bingham married twice more, first to Eliza K. Thomas. After several years, she was confined to a mental asylum, where she died in 1876. He next married the widow Martha Lykins, a Kansas City community activist respected for her work among orphans (despite her Confederate activism years earlier), but their marriage lasted less than a year before Bingham died (Martha Lykins Bingham died in 1890).<ref name="Nagel" /><ref name="digital.shsmo.org"/>

==Career in St. Louis==

[[File:George Caleb Bingham- "The Jolly Flatboatmen".jpg|right|thumb|''Jolly Flatboatmen'', 1846]]
Bingham returned with his family to St. Louis permanently in 1845. Despite—or because of—his commercial success through the [[American Art Union]] based in New York (which distributed engravings of his "Jolly Flatboatmen" to 10,000 subscribers in 1847 and would purchase and distribute several more paintings in the next seven years),<ref name="georgecalebbingham.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.georgecalebbingham.org/bio.htm |title=George Caleb Bingham - Artist of Missouri and the American Frontier |website=www.georgecalebbingham.org |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516182326/http://www.georgecalebbingham.org/bio.htm |archive-date=2007-05-16}}</ref> Bingham ran for election as a Whig to the [[Missouri House of Representatives]] the following year. He appeared to have won in 1846 by 3 votes, but lost in a recount. In a reprise of the election in 1848, Bingham won the seat by a decisive margin,<ref name="Missouri cyclopedia"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/historicallistings/molegb.asp|title=Missouri Legislators B|work=mo.gov|access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref> becoming one of the few artists to serve in elected political office. He actively opposed the pro-slavery "[[Claiborne Fox Jackson|Jackson]] resolutions" in 1849, although their proponent was also a resident of Saline County. He would also represent Missouri's eighth district at the Whig National Convention in June 1852. Bingham's political interests would be reflected in his vivid paintings of frontier political life.<ref name="Rash">Rash, Nancy, ''The Painting And Politics of George Caleb Bingham'' (Yale University Press, 1991).</ref>

In 1856, two years after the tumultuous creation of the [[Kansas Territory]], Bingham traveled to Europe for an extensive tour with his second wife Eliza and youngest daughter. First they stayed in Paris for several months, where Bingham fulfilled a long-cherished desire and studied the [[Old Masters]] at the [[Louvre Museum]], likely his chief reason for going abroad. They went on to [[Düsseldorf]], Germany, where they lived until 1859, taking part in the [[Düsseldorf school of painting]]. Bingham lived and worked among the American and German artists of the art colony, among whom was the German-American [[Emanuel Leutze]], the most prominent [[historical painter]] in the United States. (''[[Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851 painting)|Washington Crossing the Delaware]]'' was then his most famous work.) Leutze was unusual for living in both countries and had an open studio in Düsseldorf, where he welcomed Bingham as a friend and already successful artist. While in Germany, Bingham worked on important [[commission (art)|commission]]s from the Missouri State Legislature of Presidents Washington and Jefferson (later destroyed by fire), as well as independent paintings.

==American Civil War==
[[File:George Caleb Bingham - Order No. 11 - Google Art Project.jpg|right|thumb|General Ewing's ''Order No. 11'' of 1863 (painted 1868)]]

Bingham returned to America after the death of his wife's father in 1859.<ref name="georgecalebbingham.org"/> He continued to travel throughout Missouri seeking commissions, and again became involved in politics. In the 1860 election, Missourians had elected his one-time opponent, Democrat [[Claiborne Fox Jackson]], governor in part because Jackson declared himself anti-secession. [[Abraham Lincoln]] had also been elected president and secession talk abounded. Upon taking office, Governor Jackson opened communications with Confederates, including [[Jefferson Davis]], and sent the state national guard's artillery pieces down the Mississippi River for Confederate service. Bingham, as a dedicated Union man, raised troops to oppose Jackson and his appointed ally, Major General [[Sterling Price]], and was commissioned as a captain.<ref name="shsmo.org"/> Union forces routed the Confederates at Boonville on June 17 and again on September 13, 1861. Between those battles, the Missouri Convention met and almost unanimously declared itself against secession, then declared the governor's position vacant and on July 28 elected [[Hamilton Gamble]] governor to replace Jackson. Jackson refused to accept his deposition, instead declaring Missouri a "Free Republic" on August 5 and traveling to [[Richmond, Virginia]], to confer with Confederate officials.

In September 1861, Governor Gamble appointed Bingham [[State Treasurer of Missouri]], and he served honestly and competently throughout the war. In 1863 Bingham vociferously opposed as inhumane Union General [[Thomas Ewing, Jr.|Ewing's]] [[General Order No. 11 (1863)|Order No. 11]], which ordered the depopulation of [[Cass County, Missouri|Cass]], [[Bates County, Missouri|Bates]] and [[Jackson County, Missouri|Jackson Counties]] and part of [[Vernon County, Missouri|Vernon County]] in western Missouri to limit support for Confederate partisans. Bingham believed many of the atrocities on the Kansas–Missouri border were in fact committed by pro-Union "Jayhawkers" with Ewing's connivance. The order backfired by exacerbating resentments against occupying troops even by Union sympathizers (and later became the subject of a painting shown herein). Boonville also would be briefly occupied by Confederate troops on October 11, 1863, and again on October 11, 1864. Meanwhile, Bingham also continued to paint more portraits, which had always been his "bread and butter" work.

==Postwar career==

Although the Whig Party was nearly defunct by the time Bingham returned to Missouri, Bingham also returned to politics, and he would later align with the Democratic Party.<ref name="Missouri cyclopedia"/> He continued to stay involved in politics in the post-[[United States Civil War|Civil War]] years through political appointments. In 1874, he was appointed president of [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] Board of Police Commissioners, and appointed the first [[chief of police]] there.<ref>[http://kcpd.org/kcpd2004/aboutus.htm "About Us"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416063057/http://www.kcpd.org/kcpd2004/aboutus.htm |date=2009-04-16 }}, Kansas City Police Department, 2004</ref> In 1875, the governor appointed Bingham as Adjutant-General of Missouri, so thereafter he was often referred to as "General Bingham".

Toward the end of his life, although quite ill, Bingham was appointed the first Professor of Art at the [[University of Missouri]] in [[Columbia, Missouri]], which his friend Major Rollins and the Rollins family helped found. He met with only a few students before his death; among them was [[Amanda Austin]].<ref name="Tufts(U.S.)1987">{{cite book|author1=Eleanor Tufts|author-link=Eleanor Tufts|author2=National Museum of Women in the Arts (U.S.)|author3=International Exhibitions Foundation|title=American women artists, 1830–1930|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvxPAAAAMAAJ|year=1987|publisher=International Exhibitions Foundation for the National Museum of Women in the Arts|isbn=978-0-940979-01-7}}</ref>

==Death, legacy and honors==

Bingham died on July 7, 1879, in Kansas City, Missouri. He was survived by his wife of less than a year, as well as his son by his second wife, (James) Rollins Bingham (1861–1910), who became a lawyer in [[Independence, Missouri]]. George Caleb Bingham was buried at Kansas City's Union Cemetery.

The following year, Rollins Bingham hauled his father's "Order No. 11" to Ohio and displayed it while opposing the gubernatorial run of its issuer, Gen. Thomas Ewing, Jr. (who lost the narrow race). Litigation concerning his late brother's estate in Mexico would drag on for years, and upon his wife's death, many of Bingham's works would be sold and the proceeds funded the Confederate Veterans Home despite Bingham's Union sympathies, although after her death her charitable work among orphans would continue under the auspices of the [[Little Sisters of the Poor]].<ref name="digital.shsmo.org"/>

As an artist, Bingham's reputation languished by the turn of the century, but increased in 1933, long after his death. Fellow Missouri artist [[Thomas Hart Benton (painter)|Thomas Hart Benton]] (great-grandnephew of the Missouri Senator and slaveowner whose refusal to support extending slavery westward in 1849 impacted both his and Bingham's political careers) acknowledged Bingham, and the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] bought his early AAU work, "Fur Traders Descending the Missouri" described below. In 1934, the [[St. Louis Art Museum]] held a retrospective exhibition of his work, and others noticed his depictions of ordinary people from the middle of the previous century.<ref name="georgecalebbingham.org"/> However, by 1963, his gravestone had become defaced as that historic area of Kansas City deteriorated. Although activists restored Bingham's former home in Arrow Rock as the [[George Caleb Bingham House]] (which ultimately was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]]), their plans to rebury him near his father, first wife and other kin were thwarted; Kansas City instead decided to fix its historic but decrepit cemetery.<ref name="digital.shsmo.org"/>

By the time of his bicentennial in 2011, Bingham was considered one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century. That year the ''George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonné Supplement Of Paintings & Drawings''—directed and edited by Bingham scholar Fred R. Kline—announced the authentication of ten recently discovered paintings by Bingham. As of June 2015, a total of twenty-three (23) newly discovered paintings by Bingham have been authenticated and are listed with the GCBCRS.<ref>georgecalebbingham.org</ref>

Honors also include:
* The University of Missouri has named the George Caleb Bingham Art Gallery in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://art.missouri.edu/bingham-gallery-exhibitions|title=George Caleb Bingham Gallery|website=art.missouri.edu|access-date=2014-12-17|archive-date=2014-12-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217215724/http://art.missouri.edu/bingham-gallery-exhibitions|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* George Caleb Bingham Junior High School,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://kansascity.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-bingham-junior-high/126478776/|title=Bingham Junior High School Dedication|newspaper=The Kansas City Star|date=17 May 1960 |page=19 }}</ref> in Kansas City, Missouri (no longer in operation), was named for him.
* George Caleb Bingham Middle School (Formerly George Caleb Bingham 7th Grade Center) in the [[Independence Public School District]] in [[Independence, Missouri]], was named after him because he served on the [[Independence Public School District]] Board Of Education.

==Major works==

===''Fur Traders Descending the Missouri''===
[[File:George Caleb Bingham 001.jpg|right|thumb|''Fur Traders Descending the Missouri'', {{Circa|1845}}]]
One of Bingham's most famous paintings, this work is owned by the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York. Painted around 1845 in the style called [[Luminism (American art style)|luminism]] by some historians of American art, it was originally entitled, ''French Trader, [[Half-breed]] Son''. The [[American Art Union]] thought the title potentially controversial and renamed it when it was first exhibited. It reflected the reality of fur trappers and traders frequently marrying [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] women in their territories; in Canada the ethnic [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis people]] have been recognized by the government as a distinct group with status similar to First Nations. The painting is haunting for its evocation of an era in American history—note, in particular, the liberty cap worn by the older man. A bear cub seated at the end of the boat is secured by a chain.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10159|title=George Caleb Bingham &#124; Fur Traders Descending the Missouri &#124; American|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=Mar 13, 2023}}</ref><ref>Schwartz, Sanford (June 25, 2015). "The Lure of Life on the Missouri". ''The New York Review of Books'' '''62''' (11): 51–52.</ref>

===''The Election Series''===
Bingham's ''Election Series'' comprises three paintings: ''The County Election'', ''Stump Speaking'', and ''The Verdict of the People''. Bingham intended for the Election Series to reach a national audience rather than Missourians alone. To spread his idea of free people and free institutions, Bingham exhibited his paintings in Washington and urged the Library Committee of Congress to purchase them so American leaders could view them. When the Library Committee of Congress decided to not purchase his trio, he lent the paintings to the Mercantile Library Association in St. Louis.<ref name="Rash" />

====''The County Election''====
[[File:George Caleb Bingham - The County Election.jpg|thumb|''The County Election,'' 1852]]
The first painting made for the Election Series shows the voting process in Missouri.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=George Caleb Bingham|last=Shapiro|first=Michael|publisher=Harry N. Abrams Inc.|year=1993|location=New York}}</ref> ''The County Election'' depicts a variety of people from several different social classes, such as young boys playing a game, two men talking about the election happening around them, and a mass of men walking up the stairs to vote.<ref>Laura Rigal, "Black Work at the Polling Place: the Color Line in'The County Election'." ''Common-place: the Journal of Early American Life'' 9.1 (2008). [https://web.archive.org/web/20160416223026/http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=english_pubs online]</ref>
A banner shows the words, "The Will of the People[,] The Supreme Law", a credo that had great meaning for Bingham. He believed that people had a right to share their ideas; he also believed that he lost his seat in legislature in 1846 due to the improper following of the people's will.<ref name="Rash" />{{clarify|date=March 2016}}<!--Did he think the election was stolen, or that the voters chose wrongly? It's ambiguously worded here--> A mill in the background of the painting provided both a local detail and a reference to a Whig candidate who used a mill as a political symbol. The cedar barrels are evocative of a different Whig candidate who used cedar barrels as his political symbol.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Groseclose|first=Barbara|date=1987|title=Painting, Politics, and George Caleb Bingham|journal=American Art Journal}}</ref> In his first painting of ''The County Election'', Bingham showed two men flipping a coin beneath a judge. The two people represent [[Meredith Miles Marmaduke|ex-governor Marmaduke]]'s bet that he had placed on the election of Bingham versus his opponent, Erasmus Sappington (allegedly the man in the tall hat soliciting votes is Erasmus Sappington).<ref name="A deeper look county election 1852">[https://www.binghamfilm.com/blog/2016/1/13/a-deeper-look-county-election-1852 A deeper look county election 1852]</ref> Bingham also purposefully kept the scene outside to represent universal suffrage, one of his beliefs. The openness of the setting shows that politics should happen in the open rather than behind the curtains of the government. The idea of universal suffrage agrees with Bingham's ideas of the will of the people: every white man should have the right to vote because the will of the people should be the supreme law.<ref name="Rash" /> Allegedly Bingham is the man sitting on the courthouse steps<ref name="A deeper look county election 1852"/>

Though many people understood and supported the principles portrayed by Bingham, some believed that Bingham did not correctly portray his beliefs. A critic complained that the painting made a mockery of American principles by including details such as the drunkard voting in the foreground. The critic claimed that because Bingham had shown drinking and gambling as part of the election process, he was defaming the political process.<ref>{{Cite book|title=George Caleb Bingham : Missouri's Famed Painter and Forgotten Politician|last=Nagel|first=Paul|publisher=University of Missouri|year=2005}}</ref>

The reference to Marmaduke in ''The County Election'' was only relative to Missouri, so in order to generalize the message of the painting to the nation, Bingham removed the two men tossing a coin in the print version.<ref name="Rash" /> In the corner of the original painting a newspaper title reads, "The Missouri Republican"; Bingham requested that the man who replicated his painting change the title to "The National Intelligencer" so that the painting would generalize to a larger audience.<ref name=":0" />

====''Stump Speaking''====
[[File:George Caleb Bingham - Stump Speaking.jpg|thumb|''Stump Speaking'', 1853–54]]
[[File:Meredith Miles Marmaduke.jpg|thumb|Meredith Miles Marmaduke]]
In the second painting of the trio, ''Stump Speaking'', a politician persuades Missourians to vote in his favor. Depicted are three figures that stand out because of their startling bright white clothing: the "Stump Speaker", the "Outstanding Citizen" (the sitting man opposite of the speaker), and the "Small Businessman" (the young child in middle of the painting). Before the creation of the painting, Bingham had made preliminary sketches of the three aforementioned people, who represented Bingham's belief of the past, present, and future of American politics. The "Outstanding Citizen", as Bingham's sketch refers to him, represents the past as the man's sharp edges and fine clothes show how he is unwilling to bend his beliefs and instead works among the people. His sharp edges contrast with the softer curves of the "Stump Speaker", the character that represents the present of American politics. The "Stump Speaker" appears to be swaying the assembled crowd by bending to the people's desires, shown by the curving arm that is outstretched to the audience. The "Small Businessman" represents the future. That child shows how people are starting to focus more on their money, as the child is, and less on the politics, parallel to how the child is detached from the debate surrounding him. The three people represent "the Jeffersonian past, of statesmen and gentlemen farmers; the Jacksonian present, of demagogues, party hacks, and gullible citizens; and a materialistic future of isolated citizens with no common public life at all."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Casper|first=Scott|date=1991|title=Politics, Art, and the Contradictions of a Market Culture: George Caleb Bingham's 'Stump Speaking'|journal=American Art|volume=5|issue=3|pages=27–47|doi=10.1086/424119|s2cid=153805974}}</ref>

Within Bingham's painting ''Stump Speaking'', he creates a scene that has both a national message and a local message; some of the people portrayed in the paintings resemble local Missouri politicians. Behind the speaker sits a man resembling Bingham's self-portrait taking notes about the speech, waiting for his turn to speak. The "Stump Speaker" resembled Sappington,<ref>Erasmus D Sappington (1809–1858) married Penelope Breathitt (1823–1904) daughter of Kentucky Governor [[John Breathitt]].</ref> who was Bingham's opponent in his previous elections,<ref name="Rash" /> and the person sitting next to Bingham resembles the ex-governor of Missouri, [[Meredith Marmaduke]].<ref name=":0" />
The "Outstanding Citizen" is [[Claiborne Fox Jackson]] (who was the Confererate Governor of Missouri)<ref>[https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/29774/ Stump Speaking Saint Louis Museum]</ref>

====''The Verdict of the People''====
[[File:George Caleb Bingham - The Verdict of the People.jpg|thumb|''The Verdict of the People'' 1854–55]]
The last painting of Bingham's Election Series, ''[[The Verdict of the People]]'', tells the end of the story represented in the series. Within this painting, Bingham hid several political motives and ideas similar to the rest of the Election Series. Completed in 1854, the work covered issues of slavery, temperance, and a representative government, subjects that had gone from a local to a national level. During the early 1850s, the temperance movement grew and more states were abolishing alcohol. A book by Herman Humphrey, titled ''Parallel between Intemperance and Slavery'', associated the cause of anti-slavery to that of temperance. Bingham showed his view on intemperance and slavery by painting a banner that said, "Freedom for Virtue[,] Restriction for Vice." The banner referred to temperance by saying that the vice and alcohol would need to be restricted for the people to be free. The banner then references Bingham's ideas of slavery by using the connection of the temperance movement and the anti-slavery movement to show that Bingham thought negatively about slavery and shared that view with intemperance.<ref name="Rash" />

==Bingham Bicentennial 2011==
The ''George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonné Supplement Of Paintings & Drawings'' was begun in 2005, directed and edited by art historian Fred R. Kline with initial advisory board members [[Paul C. Nagel|Paul Nagel]] and William Kloss. At the Bingham Bicentennial, ten newly discovered paintings were announced by the GCBCRS; as of June 2015, the GCBCRS has added 23 paintings to Bingham's body of work. The paintings exhibited, catalogued, and illustrated online<ref name="georgecalebbingham_org">{{Cite web|url=https://georgecalebbingham.org/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060818030835/http://www.georgecalebbingham.org/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=August 18, 2006|title=George Caleb Bingham - Artist of Missouri and the American Frontier|first=Bola88|last=Slot|website=georgecalebbingham.org|accessdate=Mar 13, 2023}}</ref> include: ''Horse Thief'' (a political allegory posing the question of U.S. Constitutional law versus Vigilantism in the Western regions of the U.S.), ''Baiting the Hook'' (Bingham's first river genre), ''Young Fisherman, Hudson River Palisades'' (Bingham's only known Hudson River painting); and portraits including ''Colin Dunlop & His Dog'', ''Lewis Allen Dicken Crenshaw'', ''Fanny Smith Crenshaw'', ''Frederick Moss Prewitt'', ''Civil War Lt. Col. Levi Pritchard'' (Bingham's largest portrait at 80 inches high), ''Charles Chilton'', ''Samuel Chilton'', ''Thomas B. Hudson'', ''Missouri Steamboat Capt. Joseph Kinney'' and ''Martha Lykins'', a previously unidentified woman who has now been recognized as Bingham's third wife, painted years before their marriage.

The GCBCRS is built upon and continues E. Maurice Bloch's authoritative George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonné of paintings and drawings, begun in the 1940s, which includes Bingham's known paintings up to 1986 (Bloch died in 1989).<ref name="bloch_1986"/> All 23 paintings authenticated by the GCBCRS Committee were unknown to Bloch. Nearly all Bingham's over 500 recorded paintings (460 are portraits) are unsigned, including famous ones such as ''Fur Traders Descending the Missouri'', ''The Emigration of Daniel Boone'', and ''The County Election''. Bingham neglected record keeping and signing, allowing scores of paintings to remain unidentified. The GCBCRS is sponsored by Rachael Cozad Fine Art in Kansas City with publication in book form planned for the near future.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="7">
File:George Caleb Bingham - Raftsmen Playing Cards.jpg|''Raftsmen Playing Cards'', 1847
File:George Caleb Bingham Lighter Relieving the Steamboat Aground.jpg|''Lighter Relieving the Steamboat Aground'', 1846–47
File:George Caleb Bingham - The Wood-Boat.jpg|''The Wood-boat'', 1850
File:George Caleb Bingham - Mississippi Boatman.jpg|''Mississippi Boatman'', 1850
File:George Caleb Bingham - The Squatters.jpg|''The Squatters'', 1850
File:George Caleb Bingham - Shooting for the Beef - Google Art Project.jpg|''Shooting for the Beef'', {{Circa|1850}}
Image:George Caleb Bingham - Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap.jpg|''Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap'', 1851–52
File:George Caleb Bingham - Canvassing for a Vote - Google Art Project.jpg|''Canvassing for a Vote'', 1852
File:George Caleb Bingham - Jolly Flatboatmen in Port.jpg|''Jolly Flatboatmen in Port'', 1857
File:Washington Crossing the Delaware 1856-71 George Caleb Bingham.jpg|''Washington Crossing the Delaware'', 1856–1871
File:George Caleb Bingham View of Pikes Peak Amon Carter Museum.jpg|''View of Pikes Peak'', 1872
File:Vinnie-ream.jpg|''Portrait of [[Vinnie Ream]]'', 1876
</gallery>

==Works==

* 1834 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - Self-Portrait of the Artist.jpg|''Self Portrait'']], 1834–35, oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1837 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - General Richard Gentry.jpg|''General Richard Gentry'']], oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1838 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - Judge Henry Lewis.jpg|''Judge Henry Lewis'']], 1838–39, oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1838 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - Mrs. Henry Lewis (Elizabeth Morton Woodson).jpg|''Mrs. Henry Lewis'']] (Elizabeth Morton Woodson), 1838–39, oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1843 – [http://www.slam.org/emuseum/code/emuseum.asp?style=Browse&currentrecord=1&page=search&profile=objects&searchdesc=The%20Dull%20Story&quicksearch=The%20Dull%20Story&newvalues=1&newstyle=single&newcurrentrecord=1 ''The Dull Story''], 1843–1844, oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1845 – [https://archive.today/20130414124213/http://collection.corcoran.org/collection/work/cottage-scenery?apcat=1 ''Cottage Scenery''], oil on canvas, [[Corcoran Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C.
* 1846 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham- "The Jolly Flatboatmen".jpg|''Jolly Flatboatmen'']], oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1846 – [http://www.slam.org/emuseum/code/emuseum.asp?style=Browse&currentrecord=1&page=search&profile=objects&searchdesc=Landscape%20with%20Cattle&quicksearch=Landscape%20with%20Cattle&newvalues=1&newstyle=single&newcurrentrecord=1 ''Landscape with Cattle''], oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1846 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham Lighter Relieving the Steamboat Aground.jpg|''Lighter Relieving the Steamboat Aground'']], 1846–47, oil on canvas
* 1847 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - Raftsmen Playing Cards.jpg|''Raftsmen Playing Cards'']], oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1848 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - Dr. Oscar Fitzland Potter.jpg|''The Student'']] (Dr. Oscar Fitzland Potter), oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1850 – [[:File:Mississippi Boatman 1850 by George Caleb Bingham.jpg|''Mississippi Boatman'']], oil on canvas, [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C.
* 1850 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - The Wood-Boat.jpg|''The Wood-boat'']], oil on canvas mounted on board, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1850 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham Shooting for the Beef.jpg|''Shooting for the Beef'']], c. 1850, oil on canvas, [[Brooklyn Museum]], New York City
* 1851 – [[:File:Boone Cumberland.jpg|''Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap'']], oil on canvas, 1851–52
* 1852 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - The County Election.jpg|''The County Election'']], oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1852 – ''[https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/canvassing-for-a-vote/HAGRavI9ENmDAA Canvassing for a Vote]'', oil on canvas, [[Nelson-Atkins Museum]], [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City, MO]]
* 1853 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - Stump Speaking.jpg|''Stump Speaking'']], 1853–54, oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1854 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - The Verdict of the People.jpg|''The Verdict of the People'']], 1854–55, oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1856 – [http://www.slam.org/emuseum/code/emuseum.asp?style=Browse&currentrecord=1&page=search&profile=objects&searchdesc=Old%20Field%20Horse&quicksearch=Old%20Field%20Horse&newvalues=1&newstyle=single&newcurrentrecord=1 ''Old Field Horse''], oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1856 – [http://www.slam.org/emuseum/code/emuseum.asp?style=Browse&currentrecord=1&page=search&profile=objects&searchdesc=The%20Belated%20Wayfarers&quicksearch=The%20Belated%20Wayfarers&newvalues=1&newstyle=single&newcurrentrecord=1 ''The Belated Wayfarers''], oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1856 – [[:File:Washington Crossing the Delaware 1856-71 George Caleb Bingham.jpg|''Washington Crossing the Delaware'']], 1856–71, oil on canvas
* 1857 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - Jolly Flatboatmen in Port.jpg|''Jolly Flatboatmen in Port'']], oil on canvas, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]], [[St. Louis|St. Louis, MO]]
* 1868 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham - Order No. 11 - Google Art Project.jpg|''Order No. 11'']], 1868, oil on canvas
* 1872 – [[:File:George Caleb Bingham View of Pikes Peak Amon Carter Museum.jpg|''View of Pikes Peak'']], oil on canvas
* 1876 – [[:File:Vinnie-ream.jpg|''Portrait of Vinnie Ream'']] ([[Vinnie Ream]]), oil on canvas

==See also==
* [[George Caleb Bingham House]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Nagel, Paul C. ''George Caleb Bingham: Missouri's Famed Painter and Forgotten Politician'' (University of Missouri Press, 2005). xx, 161 pp. heavily illustrated.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/56268/rec/16 Art and the empire city: New York, 1825–1861], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on George Caleb Bingham (see index)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221547/http://collections.umfa.utah.edu/index.php/Detail/Entity/Show/entity_id/2323 Paintings from the Permanent Collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110726084715/http://www.georgecalebbingham.org/index.htm  ''George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonné Supplement of Paintings and Drawings'']}}, edited and directed by Fred R. Kline
* [https://archive.today/20130414124213/http://collection.corcoran.org/collection/work/cottage-scenery?apcat=1 ''Cottage Scenery''], 1845, [[Corcoran Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140310101243/http://statehistoricalsocietyofmissouri.org/cdm/search/collection/art/searchterm/george%20caleb%20bingham/order/nosort Works by George Caleb Bingham] at the [[State Historical Society of Missouri]]
* [http://1200artists.com/artist-george_caleb_bingham.php Paintings Gallery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519033739/http://1200artists.com/artist-george_caleb_bingham.php |date=2018-05-19 }}
* [https://missouriartists.org/person/morem62/ Missouri Remembers: Artists in Missouri through 1951]
* [https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/navigating-the-west Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River] 2015 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of Bingham's iconic river paintings and preparatory drawings
* [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=George+Caleb+Bingham&sortBy=Relevance George Caleb Bingham in the Metropolitan Museum of Art]
* [https://www.nga.gov/artists/2380-george-caleb-bingham George Caleb Bingham in the National Gallery of Art]

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{{succession box | before=[[Alfred William Morrison]] | title=[[State Treasurer of Missouri|Missouri State Treasurer]] | years=1862–1865 | after=[[William Bishop (politician)|William Bishop]]}}
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{{Düsseldorf school of painting}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bingham, George Caleb}}
[[Category:1811 births]]
[[Category:1879 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Augusta County, Virginia]]
[[Category:19th-century American painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]
[[Category:Luminism (American art style)]]
[[Category:Artists from Kansas City, Missouri]]
[[Category:Law enforcement officials from Missouri]]
[[Category:University of Missouri faculty]]
[[Category:State treasurers of Missouri]]
[[Category:Artists from Columbia, Missouri]]
[[Category:Painters from Virginia]]
[[Category:Painters from Missouri]]
[[Category:American portrait painters]]
[[Category:American municipal police chiefs]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Politicians from Columbia, Missouri]]
[[Category:Düsseldorf school of painting]]
[[Category:19th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Missouri General Assembly]]