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General John Charles Frémont

Charles Loring Elliott

American Art

A western explorer, maverick soldier, and failed politician, John Frémont championed the antislavery cause as the first presidential candidate of the new Republican party in 1856, only to lose to James Buchanan. Appointed by Abraham Lincoln to head the Union army's Department of the West in 1861, Frémont provoked the president's ire when he single-handedly confiscated the property and emancipated the slaves of pro-South Missourians. He considered a second run fro president in 1864—representing Lincoln's Radical Republican opponents within the party.

MEDIUM Oil on canvas
DATES 1857
DIMENSIONS 36 x 29 1/8 in. (91.4 x 74 cm) frame: 50 1/2 x 43 5/8 x 5 in. (128.3 x 110.8 x 12.7 cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 20.666
CREDIT LINE Carll H. de Silver Fund
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Charles Loring Elliott (American, 1812-1868). General John Charles Frémont, 1857. Oil on canvas, 36 x 29 1/8 in. (91.4 x 74 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, 20.666 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 20.666_SL3.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 20.666_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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