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Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865
Abraham Lincoln's favorite portrait medium was photography. he recognized early on how photography could create a realistic likeness that could be turned to political purposes; he famously credited an early photography of him by Mathew Brady as the picture that made him president. Once in office, Lincoln had himself photographed repeatedly to demonstrate to the American public that he was "on the job" in the midst of the Civil War. But oil painting still was preferred as the medium for major images, and several painters depicted Lincoln, including Anthony Berger. This chromolithograph is a relatively inexpensive reproduction of an oil painting, one that would be suitable for display in Union households across the North.
Elijah C. Middleton, after Anthony Berger, c 1864 |