Canvassing for a Vote Artist: Regnier (French)
After: George Caleb Bingham (American, 1811–1879)

1853

Prints and Drawings

By appointment, Duffy Study Room

The 1840 presidential race between William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren excited widespread national interest in politics. Among those swept up in the fervor was the artist George Caleb Bingham, who painted an entire “election series” of six canvases. In Canvassing for a Vote, Bingham’s irreverent juxtaposition of the tophatted politician with the horse’s rump suggests the artist’s wry view of the lowly nature of politics. The sleeping dog may allude to the lack of voter enthusiasm; alternately, it may comment on the volatile slavery issue facing Missouri legislators, a caveat to “let sleeping dogs lie.”

Medium

Color lithograph

Dimensions

sheet: 18 1/2 × 22 in. (46.99 × 55.88 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1946.9.630

Culture

French

Period

19th century

Classification

Prints

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, to 1946; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 137–39, no. 77, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

lithographs

Signed

George Bingham, artist (1811-1879), regnier, inventor

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF

Open in Mirador

View IIIF manifest

The International Image Interoperability Framework, or IIIF, is an open standard for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. Visit iiif.io to learn more

Linked Art

API response for this object

Linked Art is a Community working together to create a shared Model based on Linked Open Data to describe Art.