Abraham Lincoln

Born Hardin County, Kentucky

The noted midcentury sculptor Leonard Volk made this life mask of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, before Lincoln began his run for the presidency. Volk wanted to create a bust of him to add to his collection of American statesmen, but Lincoln did not have time to pose. This work shows the future president without his characteristic beard. Poet and editor Richard Watson Gilder, who owned a bronze version of the work, wrote after Lincoln’s assassination, “This bronze doth keep the very form and mold / Of our great martyr’s face. Yes, this is he: / That brow all wisdom and benignity....” The smoothness of the face contrasts decidedly with the life mask by Clark Mills from 1965, which is also in our collection.