Stump Speaking- By George C. Bingham, Esq.

• Artist: George C. Bingham, Esq.
• Medium: Engraving- By Louis-Adolphe Gautier
• Publish Details: New York: Fishel, Adler & Schwartz, 1856
• Measurements: 32 1/4 x 38 1/4 (mat)
• Conditions: Very good condition- minor staining in bottom margin

Considered the Most American of American Artist, George Caleb Bingham's art captured the 19th century American democratic spirit. 

Bingham was a genre artist recording every day pursuits and details of American life on canvas. This self taught painter grew up along the Missouri River near St. Louis. At the time Bingham was painting a new optimism was sweeping the nation. This new national spirit manifest itself in grass roots democracy. Bingham's narrative paintings instilled a powerful sense of national identity with the frontier and its people, coupled with a freshness and vitality not seen in any earlier work. It has been suggested that the purity of Bingham's election and campaign paintings lie in their lack of idealization. 

The original work was painted in Philadelphia in 1854, and Bingham sold the copyright to a French engraving and publishing firm in 1856. This was a common practice at the time, paintings were often recreated in the form of engravings so as to be available to a larger audience. Bingham's "Stump Speaking" was a major accomplishment for the Missouri artist and is historically valuable as a realistic depiction of the democratic mindset of the nation in the mid 19th century.