Statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial by Daniel Chester French, Dedicated May 30, 1922, 19 feet high. (See the entry from the Smithsonian's Inventory of American Sculpture.)
This post is part of an ongoing series here on Eye Level: The Best of Ask Joan of Art. Begun in 1993, Ask Joan of Art is the longest running arts-based electronic reference service in the country. Behind Joan's shield and visor you will find Kathleen Adrian or one of her co-workers from the museum’s Research and Scholar's Center; these experts answer the public's questions about art. Earlier this year Kathleen began posting questions on Twitter and made the answers to these questions available on our Web site.
Question: What was the artistic process for creating the statue of Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial?
Answer: The following reply is excerpted from Wayne Craven's book Sculpture in America (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968).
"The project of a suitable memorial to Lincoln for the national capital had been revived in 1911, and much debate and controversy ensued as to the most appropriate kind. Finally a site in Potomac Park was chosen, overlooking the river and on a direct line with the towering obelisk that honors Washington.... The Doric temple took form first, and the architect and the sculptor frequently stood before it discussing the sort of statue it should house. By 1918, after nearly three years of thought and work, [Daniel Chester] French had produced a seated figure, more grave and pensive than his standing Lincoln for the Nebraska capital....
"In February 1918 the sculptor and the architect stood and gazed at a plaster model that had been set in the temple in the position the marble version would later occupy. This first model, only 8 feet high, was dwarfed by the surrounding architecture. To obtain some idea of the proper scale, gigantic photographs from 14 to 18 feet high were made of the statue and put together on a wooden framework; one by one, each was erected on the site, and only the largest proved adequate. The statue would ultimately be set upon a pedestal 11 feet high, placing the head of Lincoln nearly 30 feet above the floor.
"The task of carving such a monumental figure was certainly too great for French to undertake himself, and he turned to the six Piccirilli brothers, noted marble carvers of New York City. Their enormous studio was described by W. M. Berger soon after they had begun work on French's Lincoln:
[It was] a vast workshop, where amid the apparent confusion of great masses of rough and uncut marble, fantastic shapes of plaster and clay (surrounded by scaffolding and ladders, forges and benches, and the indescribable litter of chips and broken stone), [one] may discern dimly through fine clouds of marble dust and smoke, crowds of workmen in blouses, unconventional overalls and paper caps, busily engaged with their humming pneumatic chisels, hammers, and measuring instruments in liberating from these crude blocks of stone the form of some graceful nymph, or, perhaps, the robust figure of one of our distinguished statesmen. It is in such a studio that the great statue of Lincoln by Daniel Chester French has been in the process of development during the past year. [Scribner's Magazine, Oct.1919, p.424]
"Twenty-eight blocks were required, and they were carved separately in the several studios of the Piccirilli complex, which extended over an entire city block. Gradually, the forms emerged, following French's 8-foot model in every detail by means of pointing machines. When all the extraneous parts had been removed 170 tons of Georgia marble remained. Not until they had all arrived at the memorial site in Washington were the finished pieces assembled, but they fit together perfectly.
"French had been traveling abroad when the statue was set up in its appointed place, and with great anxiety he made his way to Washington after his return. He knew that his first view of the statue in its final size and in marble would mark the climax of his long career."
For further information about the artist and this memorial sculpture, you might want to look for the following books: Margaret French Cresson's Journey Into Fame: The Life of Daniel Chester French, and Michael Richman's Daniel Chester French: American Sculptor.
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