Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln

Polished white marble, mounted on a circular wooden base. Height 6 1/2 in. (165 mm); base diameter 8 in. (203 mm). Overall height 8 1/2 in. (216 mm). Signed, "L.W. Volk / Rome / 1869."

Leonard Volk was born in Wellstown, New York. Like his father, Volk became a marble cutter after his family moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, when he was a boy. In 1852, Volk married Emily Clarissa King Barlow, whose maternal cousin, Stephen A. Douglas, was then serving as a United States Senator from Illinois. It was Douglas who financed the family's move to Rome in 1855 so that Leonard could continue his studies. Upon their return to the United States in 1857, Volk helped to establish the Chicago Academy of Design, which would later evolve into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

In March 1860, Abraham Lincoln, who was then running for President of the United States, paid a visit to Volk's studio, where the sculptor cast what became one of only two life masks of Lincoln ever made. It was a process which Lincoln found to be "anything but agreeable," however, he was so pleased with the results that he is said to have exclaimed upon seeing it, "There is the animal himself!" Three months later, Volk made the trip to Springfield, Illinois to present Lincoln (now the presidential nominee) with the cabinet bust he'd created after their first meeting. During this visit he also took additional measurements and castings for a sculpture that Volk hoped to create.

At the time, Lincoln's hand was so swollen from shaking hands, that to keep it from trembling the sculptor suggested that Lincoln clench something. At this point, Lincoln went to his wood shed and returned with the end of a broom handle that he then began to whittle down at the edges. In response to Volk's protest that the extra work was unnecessary, Lincoln said, "Oh well, I thought I would like to have it nice." Four years after Lincoln's death, Volk decided to sculpt Lincoln's right hand in marble for his brother Cornelius. The present work is the only known example of Volk's executed in marble.

Provenance:

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California

Exhibition:

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America, at the Huntington Library, October 1993-August 1994