Lot 1046: George Henry Story (American, 1835-1923)

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln
oil on canvas
24 1/2in X 19 1/2in (62cm X 49cm)

George Henry Story (1835-1923)
Most famous for his iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln, George Henry Story was also a painter of landscapes and genre as well as curator and concurrent director at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (1889-1906) and the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut (1899-1922).

While in Washington for a period of time Story sketched Lincoln for three days in the Oval office, preparing to paint a commissioned portrait of the President. Story wrote "On three successive days I quietly entered the president's office and made pencil notes of my subject and mental observations of the changed in his countenance while he was...under the influence of state affairs in the different interviews with his visitors. After each sitting I returned to my room and worked upon my picture with my sitter as vividly in mind almost as though he were in my actual presence.

This insightful portrait of the wartime leader, the first to portray Lincoln with a beard, proved to be popular, as well as reassuring, for another generation, when American involvement in World War I inspired Story to repaint the image several times. Thus, today there are copies that belong to the White House, the Smithsonian Institution, the Huntington Library, the Metropolitan Museum, Lafayette College, and three other sites.
According to Story's later recollection, he made those additional renderings because in 1915 he found in the nation's capital no portrait of Lincoln in any of the public galleries or in any of the departmental buildings.