The County Election
Medium
hand-colored etching, stipple, line engraving, and mezzotint on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 56.5 x 76 cm (22 1/4 x 29 15/16 in.) sheet: 60.3 x 81 cm (23 3/4 x 31 7/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Gaillard F. Ravenel and Frances P. Smyth-Ravenel
Accession Number
2000.7.36
Art Historical Context
The County Election is a vibrant 1854 print by John Sartain after George Caleb Bingham’s celebrated painting, capturing a lively scene of American democracy in mid-nineteenth-century Missouri. Bingham, renowned for his genre scenes of frontier life and politics, depicted ordinary citizens gathered to vote, complete with lively debates, refreshments, and even a fight breaking out—offering a candid glimpse into the rough-and-tumble nature of early elections. Sartain’s reproduction helped bring this image to a wider audience through printmaking. The work employs a sophisticated combination of ha...