Uncommon modern plaster casting of the 1860 life mask of Abraham Lincoln originally created by sculptor Leonard Volk, measuring approximately 7.5 x 10 x 6.5, which reproduces Lincoln’s beardless face as it appeared during his first presidential campaign. In fine condition, with a chip to lower left side. Provenance: From the collection of Harold Holzer, a prominent Lincoln scholar and collector of Lincolnia. He is the author or editor of 52 books and specializes in representations of Lincoln in visual culture. Holzer was senior vice president for public affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1992 to 2015 and served as co-chair of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission from 2000 to 2010.
Volk first met Lincoln in 1858 during the latter's campaign for the US Senate, and invited him to sit for a bust. Although Lincoln agreed, the sitting would occur some two years later in the spring of 1860, shortly before Lincoln received the Republican nomination for president. According to Volk: 'My studio was in the fifth story, and there were no elevators in those days, and I soon learned to distinguish his steps on the stairs, and am sure he frequently came up two, if not three, steps at a stride.' Of the plaster casting process, Volk said: 'It was about an hour before the mold was ready to be removed, and being all in one piece, with both ears perfectly taken, it clung pretty hard, as the cheek-bones were higher than the jaws at the lobe of the ear. He bent his head low and took hold of the mold, and gradually worked it off without breaking or injury; it hurt a little, as a few hairs of the tender temples pulled out with the plaster and made his eyes water.' Although Volk affirmed that Lincoln said he found the process 'anything but agreeable,' he reported that the future president was an overly pleasant subject, noting that 'he would talk almost unceasingly, telling some of the funniest and most laughable of stories, but he talked little of politics or religion during those sittings.'
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