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George Caleb Bingham

Born: Augusta County, VA, 20 March 1811
Died: Kansas City, MO, 7 July 1879
Nationality: American
Background: 

rural upbringing

Studies: 

apprenticed to a cabinet maker; largely self-taught

Career: 

1834 –begins painting portraits

1844 – settles in Missouri

1840s – American-Art Union engraves Fur Traders Descending the Missouri and Jolly Flatboatmen; engravings sold to approximately 10,000 subscribers

1852 – Bingham paints second version of County Election (engraved by John Sartain)

1856 –visits Emanuel Leutze in Dusseldorf  

Travels

Philadelphhia (1838); Washington, DC (1841-44); Dusseldorf (1856-59)

Commissions from: 

Daniel Wadsworth, Luman Reed, Samuel Ward, Missouri State legislature

Important Artworks: 

Jolly Flatboatmen, 1846 (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC)

County Election, 1851 (one version in St Louis Museum of Art)