1865 Abraham Lincoln Smiling / Last Portrait From Life ??

[Eagleeye1965]

Ok guys here we go again..I have another interesting piece for us to enjoy and hopefully discuss..I did try to research this piece a while back and what I recall is landing on some internet site where they discussed this portrait and another as well..this one at one time was said to be a last portrait of life ,then at sometime or another "they" discovered it was not...but time wise it was "oh so close"...
In 1865 the Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells requested Mathew Wilson to paint a portrait of Lincoln and this is a very large and as far as I know thus far, especially due to its size,a very rare Lithograph of that actual painting
Does anyone know more about this discussion I am referring to and is this Abe's Last Portrait from Life?
He looks quite happy here..I am thinking perhaps due to the fact he just found out he had won the Civil War?
Also another question I have..why did the Sec of the Navy Gideon Wells request a Portrait and why from Mathew Wilson..did he personally know Wilson or what's the story with that??
Thank you everyone and I think this will get pretty darn interesting

[RJNorton]

Dave, forum member Linda Anderson posted a link to an article with lots of information about this. Please go here.

[L Verge]

That article is fantastic! So is the lithograph. I was especially pleased to see the name "L Prang" on it. I no longer collect, but for years I collected 19th-century greeting cards. Louis Prang is considered the Father of the American Greeting Card industry.

Prang was born in Prussian Silesia and later became part of the revolutionary movement that swept Europe in the 1840s and 50s. He got in trouble with the Prussian government and fled to America in 1850, settling in Massachusetts. He began work here making wood engravings for book illustrations and worked with Frank Leslie's firm for awhile.

He started his own business to specialize in colored lithography - first in business advertisements and then in producing war maps during our Civil War. After the war, he turned his talents to creating greeting cards, which were popular in England - especially Christmas cards - and album cards that were popular to collect and add to scrapbooks. At one time, he advertised that he could produce as many as twenty-three different colors on a single card, which was unheard of in those days.

It was nice to see his name attached to the Lincoln engraving.

[HerbS]

Now,that photo is "dead nut" of Lincoln!

[LincolnMan]

Love the portrait. The article is fascinating. The photograph continues to be falsely attributed as having been taken in April 1865. The date is so embedded in books and media, that I don't think it will ever cease to be so.