A surprising influence on Obama’s portrait: Abraham Lincoln

[David Lockmiller]

A surprising influence on Obama’s portrait: Abraham Lincoln (Washington Post)

“Barack Obama” by Kehinde Wiley, oil on canvas, 2018. (National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution)

Wiley’s portrait shows a serious man sitting on the edge of a carved armchair, arms crossed, looking directly ahead, wearing a suit with an open-collar shirt. Wiley, beyond his skill as a portraitist, is a fabulous student of art history. It comes as a surprise — or perhaps no surprise — that his portrait of Obama is a riff (presumably meaning, a distinct variation) on George P.A. Healy’s portrait of Abraham Lincoln. There, Healy, like Wiley, set the president in a space without distractions and did not include the usual cast of props that mark official portraits of men: desks, papers, columns, etc. Healy’s portrait usually hangs in the State Dining Room of the White House and can be seen almost daily in news photographs as the backdrop to large presidential gatherings.

Wiley’s portrait of Obama, appropriately unveiled on Lincoln’s birthday, channels the Healy painting, especially the old-style chair, the simple setting, the alert pose and thoughtful expression. Wiley’s Obama, however, is not lost in thought like Healy’s Lincoln, but instead looks outward and leans slightly forward, as if waiting for your next word. And instead of the darkness that threatens to engulf Lincoln, Wiley substituted an effusion of plants.

Abraham Lincoln is an 1869 oil-on-canvas painting by George Peter Alexander Healy of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

In the painting, Lincoln is observed alone, leaning forward, with his elbow on his knee and his head resting on his hand. The pose is taken from Healy's 1868 painting, The Peacemakers, which depicts the historic March 28, 1865, strategy session by the Union high command, composed of William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, David Dixon Porter, and Lincoln, aboard the steamboat the River Queen during the final days of the American Civil War.

Lincoln sat for Healy in August 1864, and Healy began working on his sketches to create a portrait of Lincoln. After Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Healy conceived of The Peacemakers, which he completed in 1868. In 1869, Healy decided to create a new portrait removing the members of Lincoln's high command to focus only on Lincoln. He painted the portrait in Paris.

In March 3, 1869, an act of Congress that authorized the commission of a portrait of Lincoln to hang in the White House. As a result, Healy sent it to Washington, hoping it would be chosen. However, Ulysses S. Grant, then the President of the United States selected a portrait painted by William F. Cogswell. Robert Todd Lincoln, Lincoln's son, purchased Healy's portrait. He said of Healy's portrait: "I have never seen a portrait of my father which is to be compared with it in any way." The portrait was owned by Robert Todd Lincoln's widow, Mary Harlan Lincoln, who bequeathed it to her daughter, Mamie Lincoln Isham, with the understanding that it would be given to the White House when Mamie Lincoln died. It entered the White House collection after the 1938 death of Mamie Lincoln Isham. It hangs in the State Dining Room of the White House.

First Lady Lady Bird Johnson identified the painting as one of her favorites in the White House. Though Richard Nixon had moved the portrait from the State Dining Room, replacing it with Palisades on the Hudson, Gerald Ford had the portrait moved back to its longstanding placement.

A reproduction of the portrait hangs in the Illinois Executive Mansion in Springfield, Illinois and the Minnesota House of Representatives chamber behind the speaker's chair.

[L Verge]

(02-13-2018 04:28 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  A surprising influence on Obama’s portrait: Abraham Lincoln (Washington Post)

“Barack Obama” by Kehinde Wiley, oil on canvas, 2018. (National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution)

Wiley’s portrait shows a serious man sitting on the edge of a carved armchair, arms crossed, looking directly ahead, wearing a suit with an open-collar shirt. Wiley, beyond his skill as a portraitist, is a fabulous student of art history. It comes as a surprise — or perhaps no surprise — that his portrait of Obama is a riff (presumably meaning, a distinct variation) on George P.A. Healy’s portrait of Abraham Lincoln. There, Healy, like Wiley, set the president in a space without distractions and did not include the usual cast of props that mark official portraits of men: desks, papers, columns, etc. Healy’s portrait usually hangs in the State Dining Room of the White House and can be seen almost daily in news photographs as the backdrop to large presidential gatherings.

Wiley’s portrait of Obama, appropriately unveiled on Lincoln’s birthday, channels the Healy painting, especially the old-style chair, the simple setting, the alert pose and thoughtful expression. Wiley’s Obama, however, is not lost in thought like Healy’s Lincoln, but instead looks outward and leans slightly forward, as if waiting for your next word. And instead of the darkness that threatens to engulf Lincoln, Wiley substituted an effusion of plants.

Abraham Lincoln is an 1869 oil-on-canvas painting by George Peter Alexander Healy of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

In the painting, Lincoln is observed alone, leaning forward, with his elbow on his knee and his head resting on his hand. The pose is taken from Healy's 1868 painting, The Peacemakers, which depicts the historic March 28, 1865, strategy session by the Union high command, composed of William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, David Dixon Porter, and Lincoln, aboard the steamboat the River Queen during the final days of the American Civil War.

Lincoln sat for Healy in August 1864, and Healy began working on his sketches to create a portrait of Lincoln. After Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Healy conceived of The Peacemakers, which he completed in 1868. In 1869, Healy decided to create a new portrait removing the members of Lincoln's high command to focus only on Lincoln. He painted the portrait in Paris.

In March 3, 1869, an act of Congress that authorized the commission of a portrait of Lincoln to hang in the White House. As a result, Healy sent it to Washington, hoping it would be chosen. However, Ulysses S. Grant, then the President of the United States selected a portrait painted by William F. Cogswell. Robert Todd Lincoln, Lincoln's son, purchased Healy's portrait. He said of Healy's portrait: "I have never seen a portrait of my father which is to be compared with it in any way." The portrait was owned by Robert Todd Lincoln's widow, Mary Harlan Lincoln, who bequeathed it to her daughter, Mamie Lincoln Isham, with the understanding that it would be given to the White House when Mamie Lincoln died. It entered the White House collection after the 1938 death of Mamie Lincoln Isham. It hangs in the State Dining Room of the White House.

First Lady Lady Bird Johnson identified the painting as one of her favorites in the White House. Though Richard Nixon had moved the portrait from the State Dining Room, replacing it with Palisades on the Hudson, Gerald Ford had the portrait moved back to its longstanding placement.

A reproduction of the portrait hangs in the Illinois Executive Mansion in Springfield, Illinois and the Minnesota House of Representatives chamber behind the speaker's chair.

Thank you for the history lesson on the Lincoln portrait, David. In my opinion, however, there is absolutely nothing in the new Obama portraiture to compare it to that of Mr. Lincoln. I am perplexed at the use of a sea of plants as the backdrop for Mr. Obama. I could make comments, but will refrain from doing so. For those of you who saw Obama's comments, you probably made note of the fact that he poked fun at himself.

It also irritates me that there continues to be an attempt to compare the two Presidents historically. And to choose Mr. Lincoln's birthday as the time to unveil the Obama portrait seems quite unfair to the legacy of Mr. Lincoln, in my opinion -- especially when very little other homage was paid to the 16th President, at least in the U.S. capital city.

There used to be speeches and a wreath-laying ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. As a member of the LGDC, I always received an invitation. Did anyone see mention of it yesterday? I know there was a Lincoln Dinner sponsored by several history groups, but did it get any media attention? Were other cities kinder to Lincoln yesterday?

[ELCore]

The main similarity I see is that both figures are seated very awkwardly. I don't much care for Healey's portrait; I never have. The most generous remark I can make about the Obama painting is it strikes me as amateurish. Such observations tend to be purely subjective and often comprise matters of taste. But six fingers where there should be only five is fairly objective.

There was a wreath-laying ceremony at noon yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial. There are photos on Twitter.

[L Verge]

I'm glad to know that the tradition at the Memorial continues.

Regarding the Obama portrait: I found this link interesting, especially the explanation for all the foliage http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/art...story.html I do feel that the artist captured facial features of the former President very well, but that is really a weird left hand...

[Eva Elisabeth]

"Ever since Gilbert Stuart’s 1805 portrait of Thomas Jefferson, the seated presidential portrait has been a way to deliberately cultivate an air of “chaste republican character.” The seated president is intended to project the Commander-in-Chief as Man-of-the-People, as opposed to the more regal style of standing portrait that immortalized George Washington."

Like Laurie I don't see a special resemblance to the Lincoln painting. Even less than to other seated Presidents that look at the observer and rest both hands on the legs rather than resting the chin on them:
   
   
   
(Why does the hedge overgrow him? That at least reminds me of a Lincoln quote - "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." The hedge seems to do. Not sure if that is what the artist wanted to express but that is what I'd perceive.)

---

PS: Yet Mr. Bush's and Mr. Obama's arm positions speak a very different body language.

[Gene C]

I think it's a bit of an awkward pose with the crossed arms resting on his legs. Perhaps the background is to soften his expression to make it a less stern painting.
Just a different painting style.

[L Verge]

The title of the article I linked to declares that the work will "buck the trend of instantly forgettable presidential paintings." The following explanation for the botanical garden in the background is: Like the first lady in Sherald's painting, the president in Wiley's does not smile, instead offering a penetrating stare. Obama, the veritable picture of self-restraint, is a New Adam in a lush and visually tumultuous modern Eden.

Wiley's work often makes fun of the overblown pomp-and-circumstance of European Old Master art. This painting is certainly vivid and unusual, but he's toned it down from the florid regalia of uniformed pageantry his portraits often employ. He has identified the flowers in his landscape as symbols of places meaningful to the president — Hawaii (jasmine), Kenya (African lilies), Chicago (chrysanthemums, the city's official flower).

Personally, if I remember these two portraits in the next few years, I will be remembering the plants and the stern look on Obama's face and that voluminous dress that overshadows Mrs. Obama's appearance. I will be more inclined to remember the warm and relaxed pose of George W. Bush. I served on the board of advisors of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and attended a reception at the White House with Mr. Bush (even got to shake his hand). We got to watch him arrive at the White House in a helicopter and run across the lawn to meet us under the gaze of Mr. Lincoln's portrait. His warmth and sincerity were quite obvious throughout the event.

[Thomas Kearney]

My dad thinks the background looks like the outfield ivy at the Friendly Confines with flowers

[David Lockmiller]

(02-14-2018 05:48 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Why does the hedge overgrow him?

This may be an answer from the author of the Washington Post article:

Obama is inextricably embedded in nature: not located on the firm ground but floating on an Arcadian cloud of plants that do not actually grow in the same places. To be sure, the different plants speak to his different points of origin: Kenya, the Pacific, the Midwest. But it also reflects his embrace of the diversity of the world, all flourishing in the spaces about him.

Paul Staiti wrote this Washington Post story.

Paul Staiti is the author of “Of Arms and Artists: The American Revolution through Painters’ Eyes.” He teaches at Mount Holyoke.

P.S. Eva Elisabeth, can you post a photograph of Healy's 1868 painting, The Peacemakers? I am rather in inept in posting photos. I tried and tried to post a photo of Obama having lunch in the Oval Office dining room with Nancy Pelosi and this original painting in the background between them.

It is my favorite Lincoln painting (some photographs, I like better). There's a write-up about this painting in Wikipedia with General Sherman describing how it came about. I thought about posting that as well but did not do so.

Many years ago, I purchased a small copy of this painting at a small coffee shop in Springfield, Illinois that served Illy Caffee (I almost could not believe my eyes when I saw the Illy sign in the window of that little coffee shop those many years ago). I used to go back to Illinois every year and make a solitary pilgrimage to Springfield. I thought at the time that civilization had come finally to Central Illinois. I still have that photo propped up on my chest drawers in the living room/bedroom of my apartment in San Francisco after these many years.

Wow, what a moment in time that was for the painting with Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and Porter just before the "Appomattox" campaign.

[My Name Is Kate]

Kehinde Wiley had toyed with the idea of having Obama holding a basketball in the portrait. Wiley also has painted two portraits of black women holding the severed heads of white women. This was supposedly a jocular statement on the "kill whitey thing," and a rejection of white standards of beauty as it applies to women.

Obama's hands, especially the one with six fingers, are huge. I can't help wondering if that might be a reference to the President Trump "tiny hands" debate, which leads some to speculate that another part of his body must also therefore be tiny.

I think President Lincoln must be rolling in his grave at the mere thought of Obama being likened to him in any way at all.

[L Verge]

I didn't realize that the first Lincoln portrait commissioned for the White House was done by artist William F. Cogswell and was preferred by President Grant. It was Robert Lincoln who purchased the Healy portrait, and it remained in the family until Lincoln's granddaughter, Mamie, presented it to the White House during the FDR administration. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/lincol...ining-room

I'm not good at cutting and pasting photos either, but personally, I like Cogswell's painting. I don't remember reading where it is now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F....,_1869.jpg

[JMadonna]

The Obama portrait is completely flat, no depth whatsoever, no capture of any light reflecting off of him or the background. My ninth grade art teacher would grade it as incomplete. The hedge had to overgrow him because if it didn't it would look like a color-form pasted on paisley wallpaper.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Is the WP author's take on the painting the same as the artist's intention?

Floating, yes. And overgrown. Lincoln stood firm. The idea of diversity is one nice thing, but his Rolex separates him from the majority of Kenyans. (Speaking of symbolism, Rosa canina as other roses was a symbol of luxury and lavishness in Ancient Rome...)

I like the painting as it reminds me of a naive Rousseau (the "jungle" and technique) or modern Hopper (the air of isolation), painters I like. However, I find it very unfavorable for a Presidential portrait unless you want it so. Also the grim facial expression and crossed arms towards the observer I don't perceive as much embracing, v.v.

Healy's painting is one of my favorites, too. David, if you click on the second picture in my post above you get the very painting enlarged. I'm afraid I cannot post another way.

[David Lockmiller]

(02-14-2018 08:18 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Is the WP author's take on the painting the same as the artist's intention?

Healy's painting is one of my favorites, too. David,

I agree with your comment. Why not just ask the artist what were his intentions?

Eva Elisabeth, I was referring to Healy's 1868 painting, The Peacemakers. Wow, what a moment in time that was for the painting with Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and Porter just before the "Appomattox" campaign. Four years of war and the end was coming!

---

The Peacemakers is an 1868 painting by George P.A. Healy. It depicts the historic March 28, 1865, strategy session by the Union high command on the steamer River Queen during the final days of the American Civil War.

In March 1865, General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant invited President Lincoln to visit his headquarters at City Point, Virginia. By coincidence, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman (then campaigning in North Carolina) happened to visit City Point at the same time. This allowed for the war's only three-way meeting of President Lincoln, General Grant, and General Sherman. Also present was Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter.

The artist was not present at the meeting near Richmond. However, he had previously painted individual portraits of the four men and he had obtained the data from which he worked from General Sherman. In a November 28, 1872 letter to Isaac Newton Arnold, General Sherman wrote:

In Chicago about June or July of that year, when all the facts were fresh in my mind, I told them to George P. A. Healy, the artist, who was casting about for a subject for an historical painting, and he adopted this interview. Mr. Lincoln was then dead, but Healy had a portrait, which he himself had made at Springfield some five or six years before. With this portrait, some existing photographs, and the strong resemblance in form of [Leonard Swett], of Chicago, to Mr. Lincoln he made the picture of Mr. Lincoln seen in this group. For General Grant, Admiral Porter, and myself he had actual sittings, and I am satisfied the four portraits in this group of Healy's are the best extant.

Healy afterwards, in Rome, painted ten smaller copies, about eighteen by twenty-four inches, one of which I now have, and it is now within view. I think the likeness of Mr. Lincoln by far the best of the many I have seen elsewhere, and those of General Grant, Admiral Porter, and myself equally good and faithful. I think Admiral Porter gave Healy a written description of our relative positions in that interview, also the dimensions, shape, and furniture of the cabin of the "Ocean Queen"; but the rainbow is Healy's—typical, of course, of the coming peace.

In this picture I seem to be talking, the others attentively listening. Whether Healy made this combination from Admiral Porter's letter or not, I cannot say; but I thought that he caught the idea from what I told him had occurred when saying that "if Lee would only remain in Richmond till I could reach Burkesville, we would have him between our thumb and fingers," suiting the action to the word. It matters little what Healy meant by his historic group, but it is certain that we four sat pretty much as represented, and were engaged in an important conversation during the forenoon of March 28, 1865, and that we parted never to meet again.

The pose of Lincoln inspired Healy's 1869 portrait, Abraham Lincoln. Robert Todd Lincoln considered the likeness of his father in this painting to be the "most excellent in existence."

The original version of the painting was destroyed by the Calumet club fire in 1893. A second copy was discovered in 1922, after lying unnoticed in a family storeroom in Chicago for fifty years. The acquisition of the painting was made by the Truman White House in 1947.

(Source: Wikipedia)

[RJNorton]

David, here are the two images you asked for: