Abraham Lincoln Art Gallery. Com

Lincoln's Image

Essays on Art, Sculpture, and Abraham Lincoln 

By Bronze Portrait and Figure Sculptor James J. Nance

 

Sculptor James Nance's research process and the use of life masks during the creation of his twin portrait of transition of Abraham Lincoln, "Immortal Conscience" and "Prairie Lawyer." 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

Artist Essays

Essay 3 of  10 

Essay 1   

Essay 2  Essay 3 Essay 4  Essay 5    Essay 6  

Essay 7 

Essay 8

Essay 9

Essay 10

 

Researching Abraham Lincoln's Image

When this project began, I collected a great many pictures of Mr. Lincoln and enlarged them to life size copies in my darkroom. I soon realized that every picture of Mr. Lincoln looked like an entirely different person.  This was due in part to his incredibly complicated face and the ravages of time and in part to the distortions and limitations inherent in the early cameras.  To create the image I wanted, I needed more than a collection of photographs; I needed a lifemask.

Masks have been used for hundreds of years by sculptors and painters as stand ins for subjects who were unavailable.  The early mask casting process required the subject to endure a long period of discomfort, and the unnatural compression of the skin and facial muscles by the plaster often resulted in a severe, deathly look.  Even with these major limitations, masks were and still are a very useful reference tool which can guide the artist in proper proportion and skull structure. A mask is not a work of art or sculpture, only a tool. 

The Research Process

Two life masks were made of Abraham Lincoln.  The first, shown on this page by artist Leonard Volk, was made in March of 1860 and shows a robust Lincoln without a beard.  The second, by sculptor Clark Mills, is a full head cast made in 1865, just two months before Lincoln was assassinated.  The latter reveals a fragile face, ravaged by the pressures of presiding over the most devastating war of our history, the Civil War.  The trauma of the struggle revealed by that mask has often led others to call it a death mask, but it is not.  

 

After several months of nationwide correspondence with knowledgeable curators of Lincoln artifacts, I was graciously granted permission by the staff at the Lincoln Museum to come to Ft. Wayne to make my own molds of their priceless Volk and Mills masks.  With plaster copies made from these molds and with my photographic enlargements of every known Lincoln pose, I now possessed all of the physical research material I needed to proceed with the portraits.  Before I could begin the sculpture and before I could hope to capture Lincoln's spirit in clay, I needed to become intimately familiar with Abraham Lincoln the person.

When one views a work of art, one is really seeing the subject through the eyes and heart of the artist.  The artist must be so familiar with the subject's character that he or she can bring personal insight and personal feeling into the work, as well as craftsmanship and artistry.  Only then can an artist hope to achieve expressiveness and sensitivity and raise the work to the level of  fine art.  

In my pursuit of this elusive goal, I relied on my years of Lincoln study as a solid foundation and expanded my knowledge and understanding with an intensive reading program of Lincoln material.  I frequently traveled to Lincoln sites around the country to experience first hand his life surroundings and attended numerous symposia presented by leading Lincoln scholars.  For two years, I totally immersed myself in Abraham Lincoln, searching for the understanding that would lead me to his spirit, and the hope that I could express this understanding in these portraits. 

 

 

 

 

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Contact Sculptor James J. Nance For Information on Private Portrait and Figure Sculpture Commissions

 

 

Be sure to check out our Lincoln Gallery  which offers original  limited edition museum quality art at affordable prices.

Our unique products include  a color framed Lincoln Print, original reliefs, figure, and bust sculpture, and both Lincoln life masks. 

 

 

Click to learn more about this framed limited edition print

Click to learn more about our museum quality bronze Lincoln Volk life Mask

Click to learn more about our museum quality bronze Lincoln Mills life Mask

Click this picture to learn more about our Abraham Lincoln Sculpture

Click this picture to learn more about our Abraham Lincoln Sculpture

"Lincoln at Gettysburg" Click to learn more about this Limited Edition figure

Click on this picture to learn more about our Life Size Lincoln bronze sculptures

Click on this picture to learn more about our Life Size Lincoln bronze sculptures

Click to learn more about these limited edition cabinet size busts

Click to learn more about these limited edition cabinet size busts

 

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James  J.  Nance  Sculpture  Studio    4617 Lonetree Drive,     Loveland,  Colorado  80537

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First Published to Web on  0 1/24/2003  /   Last  Updated on  05/16/2013 11:47 PM    /   Copyright 2003 James J. Nance