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Canvassing for a Vote

Artist George Caleb Bingham (American, 1811 - 1879)
Date1852
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 25 1/4 x 30 1/2 inches (64.14 x 77.47 cm)
Framed: 36 1/2 x 41 1/2 inches (92.71 x 105.41 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number54-9
SignedSigned and dated lower left: G. C. Bingham / 1852
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 215
Collections
DescriptionArrow Rock Tavern, left, doorway at edge, dog lying before it. Right, on sidewalk, seated politician, saddlebag beside him, gesticulating toward two seated men and one standing man. Fourth man peers through tavern window, background. Tavern sign, top right center. Horse and tree, right middleground; cabin at right edge. Landscape, low horizon, and clouds right background.Exhibition History

Rediscoveries in American Painting, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Oh., October 3–November 6, 1955, no. 1.

 

George Caleb Bingham: Sesquicentennial Exhibition, 1811–1961, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Mo., March 16–June 30, 1961 (traveled), no. 16.

 

New York World’s Fair, Hall of Presidents, Federal Pavilion, New York, April 22–October 18, 1964 and April 21–October 17, 1965, no cat.

 

Paintings by American Masters: Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, Kalamazoo Art Center, Mich., September 14–October 19, 1966, unnumbered.

 

George Caleb Bingham, 1811–1879, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., October 19, 1967–May 19, 1968 (traveled), no. 26.

 

The Romantic Vision in America, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Tx., October 9–November 28, 1971, no. 34.

 

The Painters’ America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810–1910, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 20–November 10, 1974, no. 9.

 

Bingham’s Missouri, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Mo., September 26, 1975–April 11, 1976 (traveled), no cat.

 

Genre, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., April 5–May 15, 1983, no. 40B.

 

American Frontier Life: Early Western Painting and Prints, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, and Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyo., June 12, 1987–April 22, 1988 (traveled), no. 24.

 

George Caleb Bingham, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Mo., February 22–September 30, 1990 (traveled), unnumbered.

 

The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820–1920, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., March 15–July 7, 1991, no. 160.

 

Bingham to Benton: The Midwest as Muse, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., February 5–July 31, 2005, no cat.

Gallery Label
George Caleb Bingham was active in Missouri politics for most of his adult life. Canvassing for a Vote reflects his full faith in the democratic system, even as he recognized its shortcomings. Set in the artist's hometown of Arrow Rock, Missouri, the composition shows a politician and trio of potential voters in a solid pyramid at the center of the painting, representing the campaign process at work. Bingham also suggests some of the problems of 1850s American politics. A sleeping dog and a man whose back is turned to the solicitation may imply political disenfranchisement and disinterested citizens. Bingham may also be commenting on the dubious character of certain politicians by placing the horse's rump in line with the canvasser's head.
Provenance

To Goupil & Co., New York, by March 1851;


Annie Kellogg McIntyre, Philadelphia and Orlando, Fla., by 1943;

 

to Dr. Elwyn Evans, Winter Park, Fla., 1943;

 

to NAMA, 1954.

Published References

“New Works of Art by Bingham,” Weekly Missouri Statesman (Columbia, Mo.), October 31, 1851, 2 (as Candidate Electioneering).


“New Works of Art by Bingham,” Bulletin of the American Art-Union, December 1, 1851, 151 (as Candidate Electioneering).


“New Pictures by Bingham,” Weekly Missouri Statesman (Columbia, Mo.), September 10, 1852, 1 (as Canvass).


Shannon Mountjoy, “Missouri’s Great Painter of American Political Campaign Scenes, Gen. George C. Bingham, His Great Works and His Personal Eccentricities,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 6, 1904, Magazine sec., 5 (as Soliciting a Vote).


Fern Helen Rusk, George Caleb Bingham: The Missouri Artist (Jefferson City, Mo.: Hugh Stephens Co., 1917), 54, 122, pl. 27 (as Candidate Electioneering).


“George Caleb Bingham: Artist and Politician,” Missouri Magazine 3 (October 1930), 2.


“An Early Missouri Painter Found Politics a Fertile Field for Art,” Kansas City Times, June 2, 1934, 26.


“Hartford Museum Exhibits Work of ‘Missouri Artist,’” Springfield (Mass.) Sunday Union and Republican, March 17, 1935, 6E.


Albert Christ-Janer, George Caleb Bingham of Missouri: The Story of an Artist (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1940), 70, 171 (as Candidate Electioneering).


Lew Larkin, “Four Paintings on Politics Boosted Bingham to Top in Art,” Kansas City Star, October 31, 1954, 1F.


Winifred Shields, “The Nelson Gallery Acquires a Long Lost Bingham Painting,” Kansas City Star, October 31, 1954, 1.


“New Acquisition,” Gallery News (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 22 (November 1954), unpaginated.


Lew Larkin, Bingham: Fighting Artist (Kansas City, Mo.: Burton Publishing Company, 1954), 93–95.


“In the Museums: A New Bingham Painting in Kansas City,” Antiques 67 (March 1955), 248.


Ross E. Taggart, “‘Canvassing for a Vote’ and Some Unpublished Portraits by Bingham,” Art Quarterly 18 (Autumn 1955), 228–31, 240n1.


Missouri Historical Review 49 (1955), 189.


Rediscoveries in American Painting, exh. cat. (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1955), 16, 23.


Lamont Buchanan, Ballot for Americans: A Pictorial History of American Elections and Electioneering with the Top Political Personalities, 1789–1956 (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1956), 32.


John Francis McDermott, “George Caleb Bingham and the American Art-Union,” New-York Historical Society Quarterly, January 1958, 58.


John Francis McDermott, George Caleb Bingham: River Portraitist (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959), 3, 87–88, 184, 234, 417 (as Candidate Electioneering).


Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 144, 255.


Eloise Spaeth, American Art Museums and Galleries: An Introduction to Looking (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), 158, 160.


“Nelson Gallery of Art: Missouri’s Colorful Past,” Mr. Pennypincher, March 16, 1961, clipping, Scrapbook, NAMA Archives (as Canvassing for the Vote).


“George Caleb Bingham Exhibition Featured at Nelson Gallery,” Country Club Plaza Magazine, April 1961, clipping,
Missouri Valley Room, Kansas City Public Library (as Canvassing for the Vote).


Kenneth J. LaBudde, “Regionalist Painting and American Studies,” Journal of the Central Mississippi Valley American
Studies Association
2 (Fall 1961), 52.


“George Caleb Bingham: Sesquicentennial Exhibition, 1811–1961,” Bulletin (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 3 (1961), 16, 20.


Lew Larkin, “Art World Has ‘Discovered’ Bingham and Many of His Works Await the Finding,” Kansas City Star, June 11, 1966, 16.


Paintings by American Masters: Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, exh. cat. (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Art Center, 1966), 9.

E. Maurice Bloch, George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), 88, no. A228.


E. Maurice Bloch, George Caleb Bingham: The Evolution of an Artist (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), 138, 154–57, 334.


George Caleb Bingham, 1811–1879, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts by Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967), 54–55, 57.


Francis Russell, The American Heritage History of the Making of the Nation (New York: American Heritage Company, 1968), 180.


Maria Luisa Rizzatti, Lincoln (Milan: Periodici Mondadori, 1968), 16; Edgar Allan Poe (Milan: Periodici Mondadori, 1970), 111.


Robert F. Westervelt, “Early 19th Century American Visual Arts as an Expression of Demotic Culture,”
Ph.D. diss., Emory University, 1970, 83–84, 124, pl. 41.


The Romantic Vision in America, exh. cat. (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1971), pl. 34.


Vincent Price, The Vincent Price Treasury of American Art (Waukesha, Wisc.: Country Beautiful, 1972), 93.


E. Maurice Bloch, “A Bingham Discovery,” American Art Review 1 (September– October 1973), 25, 27.


Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 174, 250.


Alberta Wilson Constant, Paintbox on the Frontier: The Life and Times of George Caleb Bingham (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1974), 110–11 and pl. 7.


Patricia Hills, The Painters’ America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810–1910, exh. cat. (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1974), xvii, 53, 57.


“Gifts of $50,000 for Bingham Art,” Kansas City Times, November 19, 1975, 1C.

 

E. Maurice Bloch, The Drawings of George Caleb Bingham, with a Catalogue Raisonné (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1975), 99, 100, 192–95.


Albert Christ-Janer, George Caleb Bingham: Frontier Painter of Missouri (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1975), 70.


Philip M. Isaacson, The American Eagle (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975), 192 (as Canvassing for a
Vote
).


Bingham’s Missouri, exh. cat. (St. Louis: Saint Louis Art Museum, 1975), unpaginated.


Joseph T. Butler, “America,” Connoisseur 191 (March 1976), 232.


The Story of America: Over 150 Momentous Events Depicted in Great American Art (Waukesha, Wisc.: Country Beautiful, 1976), 144.


Barbara S. Groseclose, “Painting, Politics, and George Caleb Bingham,” American Art Journal 10 (November 1978), 5, 8, 10.


Marshall B. Davidson, “Democracy Delineated,” American Heritage Magazine 31 (October–November 1980), 4–5.


Barbara S. Groseclose, “Politics and American Genre Painting of the Nineteenth Century,” Antiques 120 (November 1981), 1212–13.


Ross E. Taggart, “American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri,” Antiques 122 (November 1982), 1032 and cover.


Genre, exh. cat. (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1983), 5, 16.


Stephen C. Behrendt, “Originality and Influence in George Caleb Bingham’s Art,” Great Plains Quarterly 5 (Winter 1985), 33.


E. Maurice Bloch, The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986), 15, 90, 198, 273, 291.


Gail Husch, “George Caleb Bingham’s The County Election: Whig Tribute to the Will of the People,” American Art Journal 19 (1987), 19n4, 20n19.


Peter H. Hassrick, “American Frontier Life,” Southwest Art, June 1987, 54–55.


Ron Tyler, “George Caleb Bingham: The Native Talent,” in American Frontier Life: Early Western Painting and Prints, exh. cat. (New York: Abbeville Press, 1987), 37, 41–42, 49 n44, 193.


Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1988), 115, 117, 119, 122 (as Canvasing for a Vote).


Joseph L. Tucker, “A Collector’s View of the Prints of George Caleb Bingham,” Imprint 14 (Autumn 1989), 3–4, 6.


Leonard K. Eaton, Gateway Cities and Other Essays (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1989), 164.


Michael Kimmelman, “Capitalizing on a Fad for Scenes of the West,” New York Times, March 4, 1990, H37.


Joe Brown, “Bingham’s Gift: Political Views,” Washington Post, July 13, 1990, Weekend sec., 63.


Michael J. Birkner, “Was There a Second Great Generation?” Virginia Cavalcade 40 (Autumn 1990), 61.

 
Michael Edward Shapiro et al., George Caleb Bingham, exh. cat. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Saint Louis Art Museum, 1990), 30, 54, 69, 74, 146, 148, 176.


Stephen Goode, “Saddling the Old West with Trick-Shot Artists,” Insight 7 (April 15, 1991), 56–57.


Exhibit: Magazine of Art (Toronto), May–June 1991, cover.


Shirley Suckow, “À Washington: Le Far West revu et corrigé,” Tribune des Arts (Geneva, Switz.), June 5, 1991, 39 (as Préparation d’un vote).


Michael Kilian, “Exhibit Shoots Halos off Western Heroes,” Kansas City Star, 16 June 16, 1991, H1, H8 (as Canvassing the Vote).


David Deitcher, “A Newer Frontier: The Smithsonian Revises the Old West,” Village Voice (New York), June 25, 1991, 39.


Kenneth Baker, “Why Western Art Show Drives Some Folks Wild,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 4, 1991, E4.


Mary Pickett, “Rewriting Western History,” Billings (Mont.) Gazette, July 28, 1991, unpaginated.


Scott Casper, “Politics, Art, and the Contradictions of a Market Culture,” American Art 5 (Summer 1991), 33, 35.


Constitution 3 (Fall 1991), 1, cover.


Stephen May, “The West as America,” Southwest Art 21 (October 1991), 106.


Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1991), 67.


Nancy Rash, The Painting and Politics of George Caleb Bingham (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 124–27, cover.


William H. Truettner, ed., The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820–1920, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), 193–95.


Tom Benton’s Missouri and George Caleb Bingham, videocassette, produced and directed by David McAllister (University of Missouri, Rolla, 1991).


Cullom Davis, “Abraham Lincoln, Esq.: The Symbiosis of Law and Politics,” in Abraham Lincoln and the Political Process, ed. George Painter and Linda Norbut Suits (Springfield, Ill.: Lincoln Home National Historic Site and Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1992), 31.


Timothy W. Luke, Shows of Force: Power, Politics, and Ideology in Art Exhibitions (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1992), 21.


Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collections. 6th ed. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 228, 234.


Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 1933–1993 (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 75.


Michael Edward Shapiro, George Caleb Bingham, exh. cat. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1993), 26, 44, 81–83, 92, 147.


In Search of the Oregon Trail, videocassette, produced and directed by Michael Farrell (Nebraska ETV and Oregon Public Broadcasting, 1996).


Glenn Altschuler and Stuart Blumin, “‘Where Is the Real America?’: Politics and Popular Consciousness in the Antebellum Era,” American Quarterly 49 (June 1997), 242.


Alice Thorson, “Life Imitates Art,” Kansas City Star, 11 October 1997, E6.


Gail E. Husch, “George Caleb Bingham’s The County Election: Whig Tribute to the Will of the People,” in Critical Issues in American Art, ed. Mary Ann Calo (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1998), 88n4, 90n19.


A Centennial Salute to George Caleb Bingham, exh. cat. (Columbia: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1998), 2.


John Wilmerding, Compass and Clock: Defining Moments in American Culture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999), 121.


Jonathan Weinberg, “The Artist and the Politician,” Art in America 88 (October 2000), 141.


Ron Tyler, “Art for the Masses: Prints and Photographs of Early St. Louis: The Prints of George Caleb Bingham,” in St. Louis and the Art of the Frontier, ed. John Neal Hoover (St. Louis: St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, 2000), 75.


Susan P. Schoelwer, “Introduction: Rediscovering the Public Art of Early American Inn Signs,” in Lions and Eagles and Bulls: Early American Tavern and Inn Signs (Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society, 2000), 7–8.


Richard L. Archey, “Politics in Art: The Example of the American Frontier Artist George Caleb Bingham,” M.A. thesis, California State University, Dominguez Hills, 2001, 79–83.


The Story We Tell, videocassette, produced and directed by California Newsreel, in association with the Independent Television Service (San Francisco Public Broadcasting Service, 2003).


Margaret C. Conrads, “Bingham to Benton: The Midwest as Muse,” American Art Review 17 (January–February 2005), 152–53.


Kathleen Luhrs, “Calendar: The Arts Here and Abroad—a Compendium of Exhibitions, Symposiums, and Lectures,” Antiques 167 (February 2005), 48.


Paul C. Nagel, George Caleb Bingham: Missouri’s Famed Painter and Forgotten Politician (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2005), 125–26, 133.


Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 120–127, 2: 52–55.


Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 162.


Margaret C. Conrads, "Bingham@200: A Bicentennial Celebration," Antiques and Fine Art 11, no. 1 (Spring 2011), 193–199.
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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