Abraham Lincoln. From the portrait taken from life by Charles A. Barry, Springfield, Illinois, June 1860.

• Price: $30,000.00
  

  SKU: 44301

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• ARTIST: Charles Barry

• PUBLISHER: Boston, Thayer & Eldridge, Publishers for N. E. States. New York edition Published by Geo Ward Nichols.

• MEDIUM: Lithograph,

  DATE: 1860.

• EDITION SIZE: Image size vignette 19 1/2 x 23" (49.5 x 58.4 cm).

• DESCRIPTION: Drawn by Charles A. Barry. On stone by J. E. Baker, J. H. Bufford's Lith 310 Washington St. Boston. The title continues with, "Mr. Barry's portrait of 'Honest Abe' is a correct and striking likeness. Signed John Wood, Govr. of State. S. A. Sutton, Mayor of Springfield. William Butler, State Department and 60 others. I concur in the above John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago." <BR><BR> One of the rarest of all printed portraits of Abraham Lincoln as candidate.<BR><BR> Mr. Charles Alfred Barry, a noted Massachusetts artist, was hired by a group of Boston citizens to go to Springfield, Illinois, and make a crayon drawing which could be used as the basis of a lithograph. Barry arrived in Springfield on the last Saturday in June, 1860. After explaining his mission and offering a letter of introduction from Governor Banks, Mr. Lincoln addressed him as follows:<BR><BR> "They want my head, do they? Well, if you can get it you may have it; that is, if you are able to take it off while I am on the jump; But don’t fasten me onto a chair.''<BR><BR> Barry said, "I worked faithfully upon the portrait, studying every feature most carefully for ten days, and was more than fully rewarded for my labor when Mr. Lincoln, pointing to the picture, said: 'Even my enemies must declare that to be a true likeness of 'Old Abe.'."<BR><BR> The portrait should have been the most important of the Lincoln campaign. However, it misfired with the public. One reviewer noted that the lithograph failed to reproduce the drawing. However, a more likely explanation was the price of the lithograph. At the time, $3 was a lot of money, so although the portrait was admired it was not purchased.

• ADDITIONAL INFO: Printed chine-colle and framed in an antique silver lacquer frame and old glass.

• CONDITION: Good condition.

• REFERENCE: Harold Holzer, Gabor S. Boritt, and Mark E. Neeley, Jr. , The Lincoln Image, pp. 50-56.

• CATEGORIES: 18th-19th Century Subjects , Portraits , Abraham Lincoln