Requires Photography
The Emancipation Proclamation, with calligraphic portrait of Abraham Lincoln
1867
William H. Pratt (American, active 1860s), Printed by Augustus Hageboeck (American, active 1861–1880s)
Dimensions
Sheet: 71 × 56 cm (27 15/16 × 22 1/16 in.)
Accession Number
2017.49
Medium or Technique
Lithograph
On View
David and Stacey Goel Gallery (Gallery 239)
Classifications
Before the invention of the typewriter, beautiful handwriting was not just an elegant attainment, it was a marketable skill. In nineteenth-century America, there could be real money in providing examples of virtuosic penwork, both as objects in their own right and as advertisements to potential students. This extraordinary calligraphic portrait of Abraham Lincoln may be the most famous of all such pieces. The sixteenth president stares forcefully out at us, protected above by a fierce eagle, and surrounded by the seals of the various states and scenes from the Civil War, including the famous battle between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimac.
But look closely, for this is a verbal portrait of Lincoln as well as a visual one. The president’s visage is comprised of the text of the Gettysburg Address, the letters and words swelling and thinning to create a convincing portrait of the man. Here, Lincoln literally embodies his greatest achievement: the freeing of the slaves.
Provenance
Rochester History Society, Rochester, NY; October 18, 2014, sold by the Rochester Historical Society at Cottone Auctions (lot 610), Geneseo, NY, to James Arsenault & Company, Arrowsic, ME; 2016, sold by Arsenault to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 18, 2017)
Credit Line
Ellen Kelleran Gardner Fund