This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2013/feb/11/lincoln-abraham-face-photography
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Lincoln's face was made for photography | Lincoln's face was made for photography |
| (7 months later) | |
| A man who knew Picasso claimed the ever-curious artist kept a box in his house full of clippings and pictures of the US president Abraham Lincoln. Picasso biographer John Richardson dismisses the story – it doesn't sound like Picasso at all – but it does evoke the visual fascination of the man now reborn on screen through Daniel Day-Lewis's award-winning performance. | A man who knew Picasso claimed the ever-curious artist kept a box in his house full of clippings and pictures of the US president Abraham Lincoln. Picasso biographer John Richardson dismisses the story – it doesn't sound like Picasso at all – but it does evoke the visual fascination of the man now reborn on screen through Daniel Day-Lewis's award-winning performance. |
| Lincoln had one of those faces. Craggy, gnarled, lean and tough, with a touch of whimsy, it is one of the most remembered physiognomies in history. One reason for this vivid endurance is the fact that America's 16th president lived in the age of photography. The civil war in which he played such a central part was photographed in epic, terrible detail by Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner and other pioneers, who drove their covered wagons full of cumbersome equipment to the war's killing fields and scorched cities. | Lincoln had one of those faces. Craggy, gnarled, lean and tough, with a touch of whimsy, it is one of the most remembered physiognomies in history. One reason for this vivid endurance is the fact that America's 16th president lived in the age of photography. The civil war in which he played such a central part was photographed in epic, terrible detail by Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner and other pioneers, who drove their covered wagons full of cumbersome equipment to the war's killing fields and scorched cities. |
| But they also photographed Lincoln, as if his face were itself a strange fact of the war to be recorded with wonder. It was Gardner who became Lincoln's star portraitist. This Scottish-born journalist and social activist was Brady's leading assistant and then a powerful photographer in his own right, who toured the civil war battlefields from his base in Washington. In 1862 he photographed Lincoln on the battlefield of Antietam, the civilian war leader's beanpole figure framed by two uniformed officers. They are dwarfed by his lanky conscience-dark presence. | But they also photographed Lincoln, as if his face were itself a strange fact of the war to be recorded with wonder. It was Gardner who became Lincoln's star portraitist. This Scottish-born journalist and social activist was Brady's leading assistant and then a powerful photographer in his own right, who toured the civil war battlefields from his base in Washington. In 1862 he photographed Lincoln on the battlefield of Antietam, the civilian war leader's beanpole figure framed by two uniformed officers. They are dwarfed by his lanky conscience-dark presence. |
| In other photographs Gardner concentrates on Lincoln's extraordinary face. In a picture taken at his Washington studio in 1865, the leader appears exhausted and perturbed by the continuing war: a chance crack in the photographic plate seems premonitory. Yet Gardner's portraits also capture Lincoln's warmth and kindness. After Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, Gardner was even on hand to photograph some of the conspirators as they awaited execution. | In other photographs Gardner concentrates on Lincoln's extraordinary face. In a picture taken at his Washington studio in 1865, the leader appears exhausted and perturbed by the continuing war: a chance crack in the photographic plate seems premonitory. Yet Gardner's portraits also capture Lincoln's warmth and kindness. After Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, Gardner was even on hand to photograph some of the conspirators as they awaited execution. |
| George Washington is remembered through painted portraits; Lincoln's most famous portraits are by contrast Gardner's photographs. There is no doubting the power of photography in capturing Lincoln and his age. The intimacy of his photographed face is astonishing – we see the light (and dark) in his eyes. | George Washington is remembered through painted portraits; Lincoln's most famous portraits are by contrast Gardner's photographs. There is no doubting the power of photography in capturing Lincoln and his age. The intimacy of his photographed face is astonishing – we see the light (and dark) in his eyes. |
| Yet Lincoln is also remembered in stone – on a colossal scale. His portrait sculpture sits 19 feet high in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, which opened in 1922. In the 1930s his face was carved on an even more stupendous scale into the rock of Mount Rushmore. | Yet Lincoln is also remembered in stone – on a colossal scale. His portrait sculpture sits 19 feet high in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, which opened in 1922. In the 1930s his face was carved on an even more stupendous scale into the rock of Mount Rushmore. |
| These monumental portraits reflect Lincoln's status as an almost mythological, godlike figure in American history, but the photographs taken in his lifetime preserve close-up glimpses of a more human face. This is the face Daniel Day-Lewis inhabits in his spookily real feat of acting. | These monumental portraits reflect Lincoln's status as an almost mythological, godlike figure in American history, but the photographs taken in his lifetime preserve close-up glimpses of a more human face. This is the face Daniel Day-Lewis inhabits in his spookily real feat of acting. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |