President Lincoln and Family Circle

Lincoln family sitting around a table."Lincoln's assassination inspired the publication of many prints about Lincoln, including portraits, scenes of the assassination, and images of earlier, happier times of Lincoln's life. A surprisingly large number of these latter prints showed Lincoln and his family in a domestic setting, giving the American public a glimpse of the private life of the martyred President, albeit one based more on the imagination of the artist than on reality. This portrait was based on a painting done by Francis Bicknell Carpenter - which was rendered into an "official" print by J. C. Buttre - though considerably modified. The figure of Lincoln was taken from a photograph made in 1865 of the President reading to Tad, though the image in the print is reversed and the boy is shown with the book, which was held by Lincoln in the photographs. Because Hohenstein wanted to show all three sons, including Willie who had died in 1862, the image of Tad from the photograph became Willie in the print, and a figure of Tad as a younger boy was added standing next to Mary. Robert is in uniform. The whole image is an impossible construction by the artist, for there were only a very few times Robert was in Washington before Willie's death in 1862, and Robert didn't join the army until 1864. It was the symbolism of a Victorian ideal family for the martyred President which was important, not verisimilitude, and this print well achieved its aim. The rendering of the surrounding furniture is very well done, and the figures are less crude than many of the other similar prints that were rushed to print after Lincoln was shot. This is a fascinating reflection of its time and a most interesting and attractive graphic image of Lincoln and his family.