George Caleb Bingham
On Saturday, March 2, 2019, other family members and I attended the Friends of Arrow Rock First Saturday Lecture presented by Dr. Joan Stack. Dr. Stack is an art historian who serves as the Curator of Art Collections at the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Her topic was “United We Stand: Bingham’s Election Series as an Argument for the Great American Experiment in Democracy.” American painter George Caleb Bingham had lived in Arrow Rock for many years, and the Arrow Rock State Historic Site Visitor Center was packed with people attending this lecture.
Stump Speaking
My husband and I have always liked Bingham’s art—from his scenes of frontier and river life to his renditions of specific events in Missouri history to his artistic capturing of general themes of mid-19th-century life. But we are not artists nor historians, and we learned about both during Dr. Stack’s lecture.
County Election
Three of Bingham’s paintings are known as his Election Series—County Election (1852), Stump Speaking (1852-53), and Verdict of the People (1854-55). I had seen reproductions of each of these works before, but I had never really analyzed them, other than to think “Oh, those are nice,” and to ask myself what Bingham might be satirizing in his era. Dr. Stack showed us how these three paintings create both an artistic arc and a philosophical arc about the electoral process.
Verdict of the People
Although Bingham painted County Elections first, the prequel painting, Stump Speaking, should be viewed first, according to Dr. Stack. And the third painting in the Election Series, Verdict of the People, comes last visually as well as in the series. Viewed in this order from left to right, the three paintings tell the story of the American political process—which starts with a candidate soliciting votes (Stump Speaking), continues as the male citizens vote (County Election), and is completed when the results of the election are announced (Verdict of the People). According to Dr. Stack, after the election official proclaims the results, the far right side of Verdict of the People returns the power to the electorate, with the voters again discussing politics.
Bingham’s Election Series showing the electoral process
Election Series with the story arc shown
Dr. Stack made several points about Bingham’s depiction of women and African Americans and children in these paintings, as well as what he said about social class. Bingham’s works are generally commentaries on mid-19th-century society, and the Election Series is no exception.
I also learned that Bingham was no stranger to the political process. He became a state legislator in Missouri in 1848 (after narrowly losing in 1846) and was a delegate to the national Whig convention in 1852.
Despite my interest in the historical era during which Bingham painted, Dr. Stack’s description of Bingham’s arc of the electoral process struck me more powerfully than the history in the paintings. I learned that artists are as aware of story arc as writers are. I know just a tiny bit about visual composition, based on reading I’ve done about photography and book covers. But I had never thought about paintings as stories, and how viewers’ eyes are naturally drawn to create a story based on where the artist puts the focal point.
Dr. Stack also discussed Bingham’s purpose in creating these three works. He was known as a genre Missouri artist, and he wanted to develop a national and international audience to buy reproductions of his paintings. As a “creator” myself, who is also trying to build an audience, I sympathized with Bingham, though he had a much grander starting point as an artist than I do as a writer.
All in all, Dr. Stack’s lecture was well worth our time. Although I am a “word person,” I enjoyed the opportunity to see creativity in another medium. And to realize that story is universal in all forms of art.
When have you learned something from artwork?
