Object Details
Artist
Paul Manship, born St. Paul, MN 1885-died New York City 1966
Sitter
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Nancy Hanks
Luce Center Label
These studies of Abraham Lincoln were for a statue outside the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company offices in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Paul Manship wanted to show Lincoln as a younger man, but the earliest existing photo was taken when the future president was thirty-seven. To get an idea of what he might have looked like before this, Manship and the director of the insurance company, Louis A. Warren, toured the areas where Lincoln grew up in Indiana and Kentucky, and researched his family genealogy. Nancy Hanks and Boy Abraham Lincoln was one of the earlier studies, but Manship later rejected the figure of the mother and modeled Abraham Lincoln the Hoosier Youth for the commission.
Luce Object Quote
“[I] depicted Lincoln as the brawny youth that he was.” Paul Manship, Art Digest 6, 1932, quoted in Rand, Paul Manship, 1989
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist
Date
ca. 1929
Object number
1965.16.21
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Sculpture
Medium
bronze on marble base
Dimensions
15 3/4 x 8 x 6 1/4 in. (40 x 20.4 x 16.0 cm)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
On View
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor, 49A
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Occupation\education\teacher
Portrait male\child
Portrait male\full length
Portrait female\full length
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1965.16.21