Leonard Wells Volk, known for casting the life mask of Abraham Lincoln, created this sculpture eight years after James A. Garfield’s assassination. Apart from being the subjects of Volk, Garfield and Lincoln were linked in other, important ways. Both presidents were born in log cabins, taught themselves the law, and sought to preserve the Union and end the institution of slavery. Many people at that time, including Volk, would have remembered their similar, shocking deaths just sixteen years apart.
Nacido en Orange Township, Ohio
Leonard Wells Volk, conocido por haber hecho un molde del rostro de Abraham Lincoln en vida (mostrado cerca), creó esta escultura ocho años después del asesinato de James A. Garfield. Además de su conexión con Volk, Garfield y Lincoln compartían importantes vínculos. Ambos presidentes nacieron en cabañas hechas de troncos, estudiaron las leyes por sí mismos y querían conservar la Unión y destruir la institución de la esclavitud. Muchos, incluido Volk, recordarían luego sus muertes tan similares y estremecedoras, en un lapso de apenas 16 años.
Place
United States\Illinois\Cook\Chicago
See more items in
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Exhibition
America's Presidents (Reinstallation September 2017)
On View
NPG, West Gallery 210
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Robert and Lynn Uhler
