A surprising influence on Obama’s portrait: Abraham Lincoln

[David Lockmiller]

(02-15-2018 05:16 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  David, here are the two images you asked for:

Thanks, Roger. I very much appreciate it.

I believe that Sherman was right about the painting: "I thought that he [Healy] 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."

The American Civil War ended with the fighting men on both sides displaying great respect for one another. Think how the war could have ended.

Here is General Lee's "Farewell Address" to his army:

General Orders, No. 9, Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, April 10, 1865.

"After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them. But, feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that may have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifices of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of the agreement officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection. With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell."

R. E. Lee, General

Source: (War Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 3, page 744 in Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days,by General James F. Rusling (1899), pp. 386-87.

Here is Grant's general "pass" to Lee, after his surrender; and he took good care it was respected, even by President Johnson.

Appomattox Court House, Va., April 10, 1865.

"All officers commanding posts, pickets or detachments will pass General R. E. Lee through their lines north or south on presentation of this pass. General Lee will be permitted to visit Richmond at any time, unless otherwise ordered by competent authority, and every facility for his doing so will be given by officers of the United States Army to whom this may be presented."

-- U. S. Grant, Lieutenant General

Source: (War Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 3, page 686 in Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days,by General James F. Rusling (1899), p. 387.

[L Verge]

Too bad that politicians and citizens did not end the war with the same respect for others... Of course, 150+ years later, we now see the same nasty traits in positions of power as well as what is fast becoming mob/media rule. Perhaps there is no room for ladies and gentlemen in our society anymore?

[ELCore]

(02-13-2018 07:55 PM)L Verge Wrote:  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...

I, too, think the face is very well done.

[David Lockmiller]

On the subject of artistic interpretation, I thought that some people here might be interested in the subject from a well-known artist's perspective.

Jasper Johns Still Doesn’t Want to Explain His Art

New York Times By DEBORAH SOLOMON FEB. 7, 2018

Mr. Johns, who is now 87 and widely regarded as America’s foremost living artist, has a new retrospective at the Broad called “Something Resembling Truth.”

Not long ago, Jasper Johns, who is now 87 and widely regarded as America’s foremost living artist, was reminiscing about his childhood in small-town South Carolina. One day when he was in the second grade, a classmate named Lottie Lou Oswald misbehaved and was summoned to the front of the room. As the teacher reached for a wooden ruler and prepared to paddle her, Lottie Lou grabbed the ruler from the teacher’s hand and broke it in half. Her classmates were stunned.

“It was absolutely wonderful,” Mr. Johns told me, appearing to relish the memory of the girl’s defiance. A ruler, an instrument of the measured life, had become an accessory to rebellion.

“Painting With Ruler and ‘Gray’ ” (1960), with a nailed-on contraption made from two sticks [is pictured in the article]. The top one, a yardstick, can rotate like a hand on a clock, as if to measure the ticking minutes it took Mr. Johns to make the work (note that this is the writer's interpretation of the truth).

I thought of the anecdote the other day in Los Angeles, at the Broad museum’s beautiful retrospective, “Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth.”

Mr. Johns himself is loath to offer biographical interpretations of his work — or any interpretations, for that matter. He is famously elusive and his humor tends toward the sardonic. He once joked that, of the dozens of books that have been written about his art, his favorite one was written in Japanese. What he liked is that he could not understand it.

[JMadonna]

Apparently Obama's artist won't explain his art either

https://pagesix.com/2018/02/14/barack-ob...-in-china/

[David Lockmiller]

(02-14-2018 10:44 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  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)

President Trump sat directly underneath this painting of Abraham Lincoln as he talked and listened today to surviving students and parents of victims from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and other school massacres, including Sandy Hook Elementary School (December 14, 2012) in Newtown, Connecticut.

[LincolnMan]

Interesting stuff David. I am not an artist. Frankly I don’t know anything about art. I do know I don’t care for the Obama painting at all. Just one man’s opinion.