Abraham Lincoln

Arts of the Americas

Modeled 1916, cast after 1916

Daniel Chester French (American, 1850–1931)

Lorado Taft praised Daniel Chester French as “the dean of American sculptors.” French specialized in large-scale marble statues, private memorials, and portrait busts. Here the sculptor captured Abraham Lincoln in a difficult hour of decision, and the president’s expression is more serious and thoughtful than in French’s earlier bronze of the standing Lincoln (1984.1130). This bronze is a reduced version of the full-size statue in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., which French worked on with the architect Henry Bacon. French’s brother, William M. R. French, was the first director of the Art Institute, serving from 1879 to 1914.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Daniel Chester French (Sculptor)
Title: Abraham Lincoln
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Modeled 1916
Medium: Bronze
Inscriptions: Inscribed, top of base at back right: "Daniel C French / March 1916"
Dimensions: H.: 83.8 cm (33 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Arthur Rubloff Trust
Reference Number: 1991.324
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/111659/manifest.json

Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), , 329–31, no. 175.

Arthur Rubloff, to 1991; the Art Institute of Chicago, 1991.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.