The Verdict of the People
- Date
- 1854–55
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Collection
- American Art
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 337
- Dimensions
- 46 x 55 in. (116.8 x 139.7 cm)
framed: 59 3/4 × 78 11/16 × 5 1/8 in. (151.8 × 199.9 × 13 cm) - Credit Line
- Gift of Bank of America
- Rights
- Public Domain
- Object Number
- 45:2001
NOTES
Crowds gather around a courthouse to hear voting results. Everyone is here—the well-to-do farmers, laborers, merchants, kids, politicians, immigrants, veterans, women, and enslaved African Americans. The overjoyed man waving his kerchief and the inebriated man sprawled on the ground border a jumble of individuals with varied responses—elated, confounded, argumentative, jovial, intensely serious, and dejected. George Caleb Bingham, an artist and a politician himself, depicted a political process that matched both his ideal of rational discussion and his actual experience of a raucous, unpredictable electorate.
The women in the balcony and the African American in the left foreground represent two populations without a voice in government at this time. These particular women are temperance, or anti-alcohol, reformers. Bingham and many Americans believed that the movements advocating for temperance and for the abolition of slavery were closely linked, as both slavery and drunkenness were viewed as destructive impositions on natural freedom.
Bingham used his personal experience in the Missouri legislature as inspiration for the three-part "Election Series," which illustrates various stages of the American democratic system. Political campaigning and the casting of votes are illustrated in the two other paintings of the series, "Stump Speaking" and "The County Election."
Provenance
1853 - 1865
George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879) [1]
1865 - still in 1867
John How (1813–1885), St. Louis, MO, purchased from the artist [2]
- 1879
John H. Beach (1829–1893), St. Louis, MO [3]
1879 - 1941
Mercantile Library Association, St. Louis, MO, given by John H. Beach [3]
1941 - 2001
Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, purchased from the Mercantile Library Association [4]
2001 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Bank of America [5]
Notes:
The main source for this provenance is Bloch's catalogue raisonné, the 1986 edition, cat. no. 276 [Bloch, E. Maurice "The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham." Columbia, MO, University of Missouri Press, 1986]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[1] This painting was begun by late May, 1854 and completed by June 1855 in Philadelphia. In 1860, Bingham exhibited the three paintings in the series - Stump Speaking, The County Election, and The Verdict of the People - at the Washington Art Association, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, and the Western Academy of Art in St. Louis. They were offered for public sale at the time, although Bingham had hoped to sell the paintings to the Library Committee of Congress. In 1862, Bingham placed the paintings, along with Jolly Flatboatmen in Port, on indefinite loan to the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association [Bloch 1967, p. 141-2].
[2] In 1865, John How, President of the O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute of St. Louis, purchased the election series paintings (and Jolly Flatboatmen in Port) from Bingham, but they remained on view at the Mercantile Library until 1867 when How removed them to presumably display in the Institute [Bloch 1967, p. 142].
[3] Sometime between 1868 and 1879, the election series paintings (and Jolly Flatboatmen in Port) returned to the Mercantile Library on view. In 1879 the paintings were presented to the Mercantile Library as a gift from John H. Beach (1829–1893), a life member, former President, and Trustee of the Mercantile Library Association. ). It is unclear how or when Beach acquired the four paintings. [Bloch 1967, p. 142].
[4] Between 1934 and 1941, the election series paintings were on loan to the City Art Museum. In 1941, The Mercantile Library sold two of the paintings - Stump Speaking and The Verdict of the People - to Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis (now Bank of America). [Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, December 4, 1941 and January 8, 1942].
[5] Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art
Museum, September 20, 2001.
George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879) [1]
1865 - still in 1867
John How (1813–1885), St. Louis, MO, purchased from the artist [2]
- 1879
John H. Beach (1829–1893), St. Louis, MO [3]
1879 - 1941
Mercantile Library Association, St. Louis, MO, given by John H. Beach [3]
1941 - 2001
Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, purchased from the Mercantile Library Association [4]
2001 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Bank of America [5]
Notes:
The main source for this provenance is Bloch's catalogue raisonné, the 1986 edition, cat. no. 276 [Bloch, E. Maurice "The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham." Columbia, MO, University of Missouri Press, 1986]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[1] This painting was begun by late May, 1854 and completed by June 1855 in Philadelphia. In 1860, Bingham exhibited the three paintings in the series - Stump Speaking, The County Election, and The Verdict of the People - at the Washington Art Association, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, and the Western Academy of Art in St. Louis. They were offered for public sale at the time, although Bingham had hoped to sell the paintings to the Library Committee of Congress. In 1862, Bingham placed the paintings, along with Jolly Flatboatmen in Port, on indefinite loan to the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association [Bloch 1967, p. 141-2].
[2] In 1865, John How, President of the O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute of St. Louis, purchased the election series paintings (and Jolly Flatboatmen in Port) from Bingham, but they remained on view at the Mercantile Library until 1867 when How removed them to presumably display in the Institute [Bloch 1967, p. 142].
[3] Sometime between 1868 and 1879, the election series paintings (and Jolly Flatboatmen in Port) returned to the Mercantile Library on view. In 1879 the paintings were presented to the Mercantile Library as a gift from John H. Beach (1829–1893), a life member, former President, and Trustee of the Mercantile Library Association. ). It is unclear how or when Beach acquired the four paintings. [Bloch 1967, p. 142].
[4] Between 1934 and 1941, the election series paintings were on loan to the City Art Museum. In 1941, The Mercantile Library sold two of the paintings - Stump Speaking and The Verdict of the People - to Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis (now Bank of America). [Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, December 4, 1941 and January 8, 1942].
[5] Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art
Museum, September 20, 2001.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.