Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Leonard Wells Volk

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Volk met Lincoln in 1858 through his wife's cousin, Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln, not yet President at the time, agreed to pose for the sculptor. Two years later, while Lincoln was in Chicago on legal business, he sat for Volk in his studio. In order to eliminate the need for several sittings, the artist made a life mask (Smithsonian Institution, Washington D. C.) that also became valuable to later artists who portrayed Lincoln. Volk's portrait bust depicts Lincoln deep in thought and finds its greatest strength in the simple naturalism representing a vigorous man. This example was cast in 1914 for the Metropolitan Museum by Theodore B. Starr, Inc. from a plaster copy of the 1860 bust.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.