Election Scene, Catonsville, Baltimore County

c. 1860

Alfred Jacob Miller

Painter, American, 1810 - 1874

Twelve people standing and on horseback talk and gesticulate in a tight group around a wagon outside a house in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted and in darker tones so some details are difficult to make out. The people all appear to be men and have light- or medium-toned skin. In the group close to us, on the far left, a man wearing an olive-green jacket, a brimmed hat with a flat crown, and a curving horn hanging from a strap across his back sits on a brown horse that faces away from us. The rider leans to the right and raises a whip in that hand. The next man stands facing away from us, wearing a pale hat, teal-green jacket, and brown pants. One hand rests on a cane and the other is held up, perhaps to hide his face. He stands next to a white horse with a rider wearing a red shirt and brimmed hat. Facing us, the rider smiles as he leans forward to read a paper braced against the horse’s mane. A brown dog with white markings on its forehead and chest sits on the ground between the two horses, facing the horse on the left.  To our right of the white horse, a standing man wears a gold-colored, thigh-length coat that flutters open over an open-necked white shirt. A red sash is tied around his waist, and he wears silvery-white pants and brown boots. He leans his weight onto one foot and holds up a paper with his other hand. In front of him and a little further to our right, two standing men talk. The first in this pair faces us with his feet widely planted, wearing a light blue jacket and red cap. He smiles up toward a taller companion, who smiles back. The second man in this pair wears an olive-green, thigh-length coat and white cap. One hand is planted on his hip, so his elbow points toward us. To our right and farther back a man in a brick-red jacket sits astride a barrel, facing toward the center. Behind the groups described, four men sit or stand on a wagon so they appear above the people standing on the ground. A fifth man next to the wagon reaches for or hands up a basket to another. Beyond these groups and on the far right, a low wooden fence opens into a yard with a sign on a tall post in front of a house a short distance away. At least three brown-skinned people wearing white, tan, and muted brown stand together in the yard and more people may be gathered closer to the house. Some pebbles and tufts of grass are spaced across the dirt ground underfoot, and clouds above are shaded with faint gray or pale, shell peach against a blue sky. The artist signed the painting with the letters AJM overlapping in a monogram in the lower right corner.

Media Options

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In this painting, Alfred Jacob Miller captures democracy in action. Although best known for images of the American West, including paintings of Native American culture and life on the frontier, Miller actually spent most of his career in his native Baltimore. This lively painting represents the small-town voting experience in Catonsville, Maryland, about five miles west of Baltimore. It is one of a small number of surviving, local, genre scenes—depictions of everyday life—by the artist.

The painting is not dated, but scholars believe it to be the same Election Scene painting that Miller exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in May 1861. It can therefore be understood as an image of the 1860 race in which Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Miller showcases discussion and debate among people from a cross section of classes and ethnicities; the animated hand gestures of the figures direct the viewer's gaze to the polling station on the right. The artist's composition featuring such active civic participation reinforces the ideals of an election day. Additionally, the inclusion of a small group of African American spectators standing outside the polling station provides a subtle reference to the issues at stake in this election.


Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Sold 1869 to Columbus Miller.[1] Charles Bowden. Henry Bowden.[2] (Hirschl and Adler, New York); purchased by Lansdell K. Christie for the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] This information comes from a note in an account book.
[2] The two Bowden names are according to Hirschl and Adler.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1861

  • Thirty-eighth Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1861, no. 537, as An Election Scene.

1950

  • The Paintings of Alfred Jacob Miller: Artist of Baltimore and the West, Peale Museum, Philadelphia, 1950, no. 7.

1960

  • American Painters of the South, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1960, no. 114, repro.

1963

  • Progress of an American Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1963, unpublished checklist.

1976

  • Corcoran [The American Genius]. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue.

1981

  • Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL, 1981-1983, no.8, repro.

1984

  • 350 Years of Art & Architecture in Maryland, Art Gallery and the Gallery of the School of Architecture, University of Maryland, College Park, 1984, no. 28.

1987

  • Torchlights to Television, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, 1987, no catalogue.

2004

  • Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2004-2005, unpublished checklist.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 31.

2008

  • The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

2011

  • Strong, Lisa. "Alfred Jacob Miller, Election Scene, Catonsville, Baltimore County." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 118, 124-125, 265, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right, in monogram: AJM

Wikidata ID

Q20188269


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