Abraham Lincoln

Date1940-1945

MediumPine

DimensionsOverall: 55 × 21 × 23 1/2 in. (139.7 × 53.3 × 59.7 cm)

Object numberN0340.1967

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Museum Purchase

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextWithout power tools or even a picture of Lincoln to use as a model, Frank Moran carved his personal vision of the former president from memories of images he had seen through his life. While the pose is reminiscent of Daniel Chester French’s 1920 marble sculpture in the Lincoln Memorial, the simple clothes, more youthful beardless face and simple kitchen chair are particularly fitting for Moran’s chosen medium of wood. Moran was a farmer, carpenter and a woodcarver from Vermont. He made chests, cabinets, chairs, and tables, as well as busts of Stalin, Hitler, Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt among others.
Exhibition History“Folk Art from the Collection of the New York State Historical Association,” Museum of American Folk Art, NY, January 11, 2000 – February 18, 2000.

“American Folk Art: Collection from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, January 25, 2001 – March 24, 2001.

On View

Not on view