The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

Each, sight 15 3/4 x 12 1/2 in. Stamped on verso, "Warranted oil colors / Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1864, by E.C. Middleton, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio / Published by E.C. Middleton & Co., Cincinnati, O." Overall 21 3/4 x 18 3/4. Not examined out of frame.

Elijah C. Middleton was a Cincinnati engraver and lithographer widely considered a pioneer in American chromolithography. During the 1850s, he partnered with W.R. Wallace, and the two established a successful business that benefited greatly from the westward migration of Americans. Following a dispute with Wallace and their new partner, Hines Stobridge, Middleton established his own operation, specializing in printed portraits made with "warranted oil colors" created through a process of his own invention, oleography, which used oil-based inks in the chromolithographic printing process. Among Middleton's most popular subjects were George and Martha Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Henry Clay.

The portrait of Abraham Lincoln, as produced by Middleton, is unique in that it is the only original portrait of Lincoln in which he contributed to its creation. Based on an 1864 photograph by Anthony Berger, Middleton sent a copy of his work in progress to the Executive Mansion and asked Lincoln for his thoughts. In response, Lincoln wrote, "Your picture is, in the main, very good. From a line across immediately above the eyebrows downward, it appears to me perfect. Above such a line, I think it is not so good-that is, while it gives perhaps a better forehead, it is not quite true to the original." Middleton made the changes, and his portrait of Lincoln became one of his most popular, particularly following the president's 1864 victory and his assassination a mere six months later. By this point, Washington and Lincoln had become inextricably linked in the hearts of the American people.