Abraham Lincoln

George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-1894) was an American painter known as one of the most prolific and successful portrait painters of the 19th century, whose portraits of American presidents and European leaders make him one of the most important American portrait painters of the period. Abraham Lincoln from 1860 depicts the future president in the direct, accomplished manner that distinguishes Healy's best portraits from the more flattering work of his contemporaries. The 1860 date places this before Lincoln's presidency, when he was still a senator from Illinois, making this an important early portrait of one of the most depicted figures in American history.

Abraham Lincoln by Healy is important in the history of American portraiture because it depicts the future president before his presidency, making it an important early portrait of one of the most depicted figures in American history. Healy's direct, accomplished manner—capturing Lincoln's characteristic features without flattery—represents one of the most honest traditions in American presidential portraiture, and the 1860 portrait shows this tradition at its most direct.

Abraham Lincoln by Healy is a pre-presidential portrait of one of the most depicted figures in American history: Lincoln rendered in the direct, accomplished manner of one of the most prolific American portrait painters of the 19th century. The 1860 portrait captures Lincoln before his presidency, showing the future president with characteristic directness and honesty.