Painting of Lincoln assassination by an eyewitness

[Lincoln Wonk]

(10-06-2015 02:01 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  I second Eva!

Here is a fuller version of the letter Carl Bersch wrote to his family:

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All Washington was celebrating, delirious with joy. Houses were lighted up and hung with bunting. Parades marched through the streets, waving flags and carrying many transparencies. Women with wide skirts, and wearing large poke bonnets, were about as numerous as men. President Lincoln was known to be at Ford's Theater, so Tenth street was on the line of march. I observed no rowdyism, just a crowd Of jubilant people, crazed with joy. The scene was so unusual and inspiring, that I stepped out upon the balcony in front of my windows, with my eafcel and sketch papers, determined to make a picture of the whole scene and transfer it to canvas. The yery wierd-ness of the scene—aside from the historic nature of it—appealed to my artistic sense. Quickly, but very accurately, I made detailed drawings. I had more than an hour in which to do this; Shortly after 10 o'clock a silence fell upon the surging crowd of revelers. The marching line halted. A loud cry came from a window of the theater, 'President Lincoln has been shot; clear the street,' soldiers and police attended to that. In the course of 10 or 15 minutes, out of the north door of the theater appeared a group of men, carrying the prostrate form of an injured man on an improvised stretcher. They stopped a few moments at the curb, hastily debating where to take the injured man to give him the best attention most quickly. They observed lights in the house, of William Petersen, my next door neighbor, and a young man Willie Clark, whom I know very well, standing on the topmost step of the winding stairs, leading to the Petersen house.

Beckoning of Clark.

Clark was beckoning to those who had charge, to bring the Injured man right in. This was done as quickly as the soldiers could make a pathway through the crowd.

"My balcony being 12 or 14 feet above the sidewalk and street, I had a clear view of the scene, above the heads of the crowd. I recognized the lengthy form of the President by the flickering light of the torches, and one large gas lamp post on the sidewalk. The tarrying at the curb and the slow, careful manner in which he was carried across the street, gave me ample time to make an accurate sketch of that particular scene; make it the center and outstanding part of the large painting I shall make, using the sketches I made earlier in the evening, as an appropriate background. A fitting title for the picture would, I think, be 'Lincoln Borne by Loving Hands on the Fatal Night of April 14, 1865.' Altogether It was the most tragic and impressive scene I have ever witnessed. I am already busy with palette and brush and hope to transfer to canvas what may be one of the strangest pictures of all time."

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Bersch was in error regarding Willie Clark (despite saying he knew who he was); Clark was not at the Petersen House at the time. I think he meant to say Henry Safford.

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Wasn't the painting or a good copy on display at Ford's? I remember thinking how dark the scene was, never realizing it was 150 years of grime.