Lincoln Lore FIFTI ET II ANNIVEUSAnY ISSUE

Bulletjn or the Louis A. Warren Uncoln Library and Mu~teum . Mark E. Neely. Jr. • ~itor. Mary Jane Hubler. Editorial Assinttnt. Published each month by lhe Number 1700 October, 1979 f...incoln Nlltional Life Insurance Company. Fort Wnyne. Indiana -16801. THE LAST LIFE PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN

While authorities were attempting last spring to the commercial elite. Patrons now paid $100 for a embargo the removal of Gilbert Stuart's famous paintings of Wilson portrait. By the end of the Civil War, Wilson charged George and Martha Washington, the last portrait of Lincoln $150 for a portrait. painted from life quietly left Boston for Fort Wayne. 'l'he On February~. 1865, Mrs. Welles introduced Wilson to the Louis A. Warren Lincoln Librar-y and Museum-thanks t.o a President. apparently in order to make arrangements to paint special appropriation from its governing body, the Lincoln his portrait. The next day, he met Lincoln at Alexander National Life 1-"'oundation, lnc.-now houses Matthew Gardner's photographic studio to have photographs made on Wilson's portrait of Lincoln painted from life and dated April. which to base the portrait. The famous group of photographs 1865. the month of the President's assassination. Gideon that resulted from this last photographic sitting included the Welles, LincoJn•s Secretary of the Navy, commissioned the only Lincoln photographs with a hint of a smile on his face. portrait, and important contemporary witnesses testified to After a day passed, probably spent waiting for Gardner's the remarkable quality of the likeness. gallery to devolop the photographs, Wilson started painting Matthew Henry Wilson was born in England in 181-l. When Lincoln's portrait. He painted all day on the 7th, 8th, 9th, he was seventeen, he lOth, and lith. emigrated to America Wilson worked on the to engage in the busi· Lincoln painting on the ness of silk manufac­ l-Ith and 15th, and then ture, only to find upon he tried to see the Presi· his arrival that no such dent in order to put on industry existed in the the finishing touches. . Hard A Cabinet meeting pre· times followed, as vented him from doing Wilson tried to make so on the 17th, but he ends meet by tuning saw Lincoln t.he next pianos and teaching day. On the 20th, he school. H is first returned to the White portrait was a painted House and painted sketch of himself he there. made to send to his Wilson finished the mother. The residents portrait by February of his boarding house 22, 1865. As Francis B. were so taken with the Carpenter. another likeness that he artist fortunate enough decided «> try painting to have Lincoln sit for portraits for a living. him, records it, on that His first sitter paid him day Lincoln was in a $2.00 for his portntit. good mood: Wilson studied with Temporarily upon painter the wall of the room Henry Inman from rLincoln's office) was 1832 to 1835 and then a portrait of himself went to Paris to study reccnUy painted for with Edouard Dubufe. Secretary Welles by a He returned to America Connecticut artis&. two years later and friend. Turning to the painted in BrookJyn, picture, Mr. Welles New Orleans. Balti· remarked that he more, and other places thought it a success· before settling in New ful likeness. ''Yes," Bedford, Massachu­ returned the Presi· setts, in 1856. He dent, hesitatingly; worked in the Boston· and then came a Eiartford area and met story of a western From th~ Lou'• A Wart,n friend whose wife Welles, a Hartford f_.nc:oln L1bnuy and M!4f'flm resident, in 1859. He pronounced her hus· painted portraits of the FIGURE 1. Matthew Wilson'$ portrait of Lincoln is an oil painting ba-nd 's portrait, Welles family and of on oval artist's board, 16 7/Sn xIS 7/8". The frame, apparently the painted secretly for a numerous members of original, measures 27 5/SN x 24 1/2". It is in excellent condition. birthday present, 2 LINCOLN LORE "horridly like; .. " and that," said he, "seems t.o me a just can one be sure the Lincoln Library and Museum portrait is the criticism of this!'' original painting? First, it is the only version of the portrait Lincoln was notoriously modest about his physical which is dated. The date is April, 1865, and Wilson completed appearance. Welles was pleased with the portrait. He must the original portrait in that month (note the date of Gideon have been pleased with the price, too. Wilson charged him Welles's check). Wilson began painting the copy for Prang only $85. Welles wrote the artist a check for that amount on late in April. He was apparently stiiJ painting it in May. for April 12th. his diary states that he worked on the copy sU!adily from April Wilson had no way of knowing it, but he painted the 20th through May 2nd. On May 16th, Wilson noted that he President's likeness at the last possible moment. Three days was painting lwo copies of the Lincoln. This is the first after the check was written, the President was dead. mention of another copy and is proof that the May 2nd entry, Immediately, Louis Prang of Boston, a lithographer, wanted uPainted on Mr. Lincoln," still refers to the Prang copy. a copy of the portrait on which to base a print portrait. On Wilson finished no copy in ApriL April 20th, Wilson began painting a copy for Prang. Before A complicating factor in tracing the history of the painting the year was over, Wilson painted at Least three copies, is that Charles Henry Hart, an enterpris ing Lincoln collector perhaps rour or five. and sometime art dealer, owned lwo versions himself. Jn a The demand for copies shows that the portrait was 1911 newspaper article boasting of the quality of the version successful. And the names of those who asked for copies he owned at that time, Ha.rt said that Wilson s igned it in red to provide even firmer proof that this was not just a nother disting uish it as the original and best version. This, then. is portrait from life but also an excellent. likeness. Wili;on the Philipse Manor Hall portrait. but it is not the original. painted one copy for Welles, who wanted a copy to hang permanently in the Navy Department. He made a copy (or Alice Brainerd Welles sold the Welles family's portraitto Hart Joshua Speed, Uncoln's most intimate friend in the days of in 1915. She senl a letter with it saying that the portrait she his early manhood. Wilson provided still a nother copy for was selling had belonged to her grandfather, Gideon Welles: John Fomey. a prominent Republican newspaperman in to her father, Edgar T. Welles: and then to her by inheritance Philadelphia and Washington and a close political associate in 1914. Hart owned the original portrait, but it was the of Lincoln's during the Civil War. He may have made another second one he acquired. The firs ~ of which he boasted so much, copy for Mrs. was a copy-not Welles. who wa nt- the original, not ed one for a New the only signed Year's Day party copy, and not so in 1866. designated by the Sorting out the artist in any way. subsequent histo· A further distin· ry of the various g ui shing feature portraits is no easy of the recently ac­ business. Maury quired portrait is Bromsen, the the fact that it is prominent dealer an oil on board. The and co11ector (rom other three extant whom the Lincoln copies arc painted Library a nd Muse­ on canvas. um procured the The staff of the painting. worked Louis A. Warren for years to estab­ Lincoln Libra ry lish the history of a nd Museum is this portra it. AI· grateful to the though some ques· Lincoln National tions remain Life Foundation, unanswered, it is Inc., which imme­ clear that the copy diately upon hear· hanging in the ing that this impor· J.B. Speed Art tant portrait was Museum in Louis· available provided ville, Kentucky. is generous funding. the copy made for The staff is grate· Joshua Speed. ful too for Mr. Likewise. the Bromsen's making Navy Department the painting avail ~ still retains the able and supplying copy Welles had copies of aU his cor· made (or that pur· respondence and pose. One other research notes on copy of the paint- the painting. PinaJ. ing is known; it ly, it is grateful to hangs in Philipse Matthew Wilson, Manor Hall in Yon ~ who captured the kers, . spirit or Lincoln's Both i.he Philip•• last days as no Manor Hall copy other artist ever and the copy in the has. One can see Lincoln Library the hint of merri· and Museum are ment in Lincoln's signed, the former face. the first. sign in red. the latter in Ft-om th(' Lo11111 A. \Vcunon that the great bur­ black. The other l.mtolt~ L1brar, ani/ Mulftllm den of the war was, two copies are un· FIGURE 2. Famed for chromolithography, L. Prang & Co., Boston, Massa· with Grant's victo~ signed and are chusetts, based thls lithograph of Lincoln on Wilson's painting. Surely, ries , growing ever known to be copies no one comme nced work on a new picture o f th e assassinated Pres ident lighter. of the originaL How more quickly than Pra ng. LINCOLN LORE 3 OTHER RECENT ACQUISITIONS

NOMINATIONS

FOR·

f'rom lltt' Louu A WarrM J.mcoln l.tlmuy tmd .\ft~JWUnJ FIGURE 3. Political banners of the l860ti are rare, and banners from the 1860 campaign are apparently even scarcer than those from 1864. Doubtless frugal wives turned many a political banner into rags. Last year lhe Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum added the first two examples of cloth political banners t.o its collection. LIN COL N LO RE

FIGURE 4. In 1964, R. Ge rald McMurtry described the Manny reaper in the June iss ue of Lincoln Lore. lie had recently helped collector Philip D. Sang obtain a manufacturer's model of this famous reaper, which was a competitor in the market and in the court­ room with the McCormick reaper. Mr. Sang's widow remembered Dr. McMurtry's good offices and recently 1\llowe d the Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum to acquire the model. For the first time in history, this beautiful model (in perfect working order) is on public display.

Prom lhf' l.oul$ A IVnrttll J.mMin L1brory a 11d M tutl'um

FIGURE 5. Like most other producers of campaign portraits for the 1860 election, Currier & Ives favored the portrait of Lincoln taken by on February 27, 1860, while Lincoln wos in to mokc his famed Cooper Institute Address. As a statesmanlike photograph, it had not been exceeded by any likeness made by tbe time of the Republican nomination. Since Brady made the photograph, it was readily available to lithographers and engravers in the East. Currier & I ves also obtained a copy ofan earlier Lincoln photograph. probably taken by Roderick M. Cole in Peoria in 1858. The Republican candidate appeared considerably gaunter and general1y less distinguished in this Western portrait. Nevertheless, Currier & l ves based "Our Next President" on i t as well as "'The Republican Banner for 1860," a campaign lilhograph which showed both Lincoln and Hamlin. The portrait was widely used for tintypes, ferrotypes, and other campaign ephemera, but the Currier & lves print is rather rare. 1'he Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and l\o1useum acquired a copy of •·Our Next President'' only this year.

From tlr.- L~111 A Warr('n l.mWn Llluary and Musf'um