Country Politician 1849
George Caleb Bingham

Description:
In this genre scene, the spare interior of a rustic public building serves as the setting for a humble moment in the democratic process. The politician named in the title has found a captive audience of two men seeking warmth by the stove (their three overcoats hang on the back wall). This country politician is the animating center of the scene. His bright eyes and friendly smile are expectant and encouraging. They are directed toward his carefully rendered hand that catches the light as it points upward in emphasis. The well-fed man at center, the most finely dressed in the room, looks on amusedly as he chews a piece of straw. The older man, more rustic in dress, enjoys the politician`s direct appeal and returns a genial and earnest expression. The painting portrays the meek nobility of a democracy where ideas are tested and approved at the grassroots. Ironically, however, the kinetic eloquence of the politician is spent solely on a gray-haired farmer and an amused dilettante. The young man standing in the background is more interested in the advertisement for the circus on the left wall, than in politics.

This painting is an early example of Bingham`s shift from river subjects in the 1840s to western political scenes in the 1850s. Bingham was himself active in Missouri Whig politics as a sign painter, stump speaker, and in 1846 as a candidate for the state legislature (a close race he lost in a recount). Bingham wrote of the campaign: "An angel could scarcely pass through what I have experienced without being contaminated. God help poor human nature. As soon as I get through with this affair, and its consequences, I intend to strip off my clothes and bury them, scour my body all over with sand and water, put on a clean suit, and keep out of the mire of politics forever" (qtd. in Johns 96-97). But he couldn`t keep away: he was soon back on the political scene. Bingham`s combination of amusement, frustration, and commitment toward politics are all manifest in Country Politician.

Walt Whitman's commitment to the democratic process also found expression in his particular art form.