The Verdict of the People

The Verdict of the People is an 1854 painting by George Caleb Bingham, currently owned by the Saint Louis Art Museum.

The Verdict of the People
ArtistGeorge Caleb Bingham
Year1854
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions74 cm × 93 cm (29 in × 36.5 in)
LocationSaint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

The last painting of Bingham's Election Series, The Verdict of the People tells the end of the story represented in the series. Within this painting, Bingham hid several political motives and ideas similar to the rest of the Election Series. Historians[1] say the painting depicts public reaction to a likely proslavery candidate's election victory.

Completed in 1854, the work covered issues of slavery, temperance, and a representative government, subjects that had gone from a local to a national level. During the early 1850s, the temperance movement grew and more states were abolishing alcohol. A book by Herman Humphrey, titled Parallel between Intemperance and Slavery, associated the cause of anti-slavery to that of temperance. Bingham showed his view on intemperance and slavery by painting a banner that said, "Freedom for Virtue[,] Restriction for Vice." The banner referred to temperance by saying that the vice and alcohol would need to be restricted for the people to be free. The banner then references Bingham's ideas of slavery by using the connection of the temperance movement and the anti-slavery movement to show that Bingham thought negatively about slavery and shared that view with intemperance.

When Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States on Jan. 20, 2017, The Verdict of the People was the chosen painting, hanging on a partition wall behind the ceremonial head table in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.[2]

References
  1. "Donald Trump Meets The Verdict of the People – artnet News". 18 January 2017. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  2. "The controversy behind the painting that will hang at Trump's inaugural luncheon". Washington Post. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
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