moss > Les Visiteurs d’ Été: Abraham Lincoln

JUL 25, 2008

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Alternate and detail:

Les Visiteurs d’ Été:
Abraham Lincoln

designer:
Leonard Wells Volk

design year:
1860

manufacturer:
Manufacture National de Sèvres, France

materials:
biscuit porcelain

notes:
The American artist Leonard Wells Volk, born in 1828 in Wellstown (now Wells), New York, studied sculpture in Rome with financial aid from his brother-in-law, the politician Stephen A. Douglas. After his return from Rome, in 1857, he established a studio in Chicago. There, in 1858, after hearing one of Douglas’ and Lincoln’s historic debates on slavery, Volk asked Lincoln if he would agree to have his portrait sculpted. Lincoln agreed. Volk later described the session when the mask of Lincoln’s face was made in plaster:

"...He sat naturally in the chair when I made the cast, and saw every move I made in a mirror opposite, as I put the plaster on without interference with his eyesight or his free breathing through the nostrils. It was about an hour before the mold was ready to be removed, and being all in one piece, with both ears perfectly taken, it clung pretty hard, as the cheekbones were higher than the jaws at the lobe of the ear. He [Lincoln] bent his head low and took hold of the mold, and gradually worked it off without breaking or injury; it hurt a little, as a few hairs of the tender temples pulled out with the plaster and made his eyes water..."

Two months later, Lincoln received the nomination for President of the United States, and Volk then decided that he would make a full-length statue of the man. He went to Springfield, Illinois, in May of 1860, to the President’s home, for the purpose of casting Lincoln’s hands in plaster. That cast of Lincoln’s face and hands were used for a number of different portraits, including the full length statue of Lincoln for the state capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Sevres’ archives indicate that the model for this bust was created in 1860, but that it was not executed in porcelain before 1909.

dimensions:
height: 22 ½”

This piece has sold.