LITHOGRAPH : JOHN C. FREMONT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY/. ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS IN THE YEAR 1856 BY W. SCHAUS, IN THE CLERKS OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHN. DIST. OF NEW-YORK. PHOTOGR. BY S. ROOT. PRINTED BY L NAGEL. [Signed in typescript C.G. CREHEN]

New York, 1856. 12" x 15" portrait on thin tissue paper, mounted to 14" x 18" paper backing. Half length portrait of John C. Fremont wearing a dark colored suit and tie. He has a full mustache and beard, his torso facing forward, head angled to the right. The copyright and publishing information is printed directly beneath the portrait on the thin paper, while the caption of "John C. Fremont/ Republican Candidate for the Presidency" is printed in typescript further down on the backing. Some fading and rubbing of margins, obscuring the name of the photographer [S. Root]. Light margin toning, image clean and crisp. Good+.

This is one of the earliest campaign portraits of the first Republican presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, nominated on June 18, 1856. Within several weeks after the nomination, several Fremont portraits were advertised in the New York Tribune. On July 8th Root's print was advertised as the "Only Authentic Portrait of John C. Fremont, Republican Candidate for the Presidency... lithographed in the highest style of the art by C.G. Crehen after Root's magnificent photograph." By August 7 our portrait of Crehen's lithograph, printed by Schaus, was advertised in the Alton Weekly Telegraph.
Charles G. Crehen [1829-1891], born in Paris, immigrated to the United States in 1848 and settled in New York. A portrait painter, lithographer, and printer, he is best known for his portraits of public figures such as John C. Fremont, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Millard Fillmore, and Lafayette.
OCLC 192110601 [2-AAS, Boston Athenaeum] as of November 2023. Not in Reilly.