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Boyhood of Lincoln
Eastman Johnson1868
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Ann Arbor, United States
Details
- Title: Boyhood of Lincoln
- Creator: Eastman Johnson
- Creator Lifespan: 1824/1906
- Creator Nationality: American
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: New York, New York
- Creator Birth Place: Lovell, Maine
- Date Created: 1868
- Location: United States
- Physical Dimensions: w94.8 x h117.9 (work)
- Label Copy: In the middle of the nineteenth century Eastman Johnson was one of the foremost genre painters in the United States, exploring themes of American life in a number of interior scenes and large rural tableaux. In this period the United States was experiencing dramatic changes as a result of rapid industrialization: cities were growing quickly, railroads altered patterns of movement, and many people were uprooted. Shifts in the social structure provoked a nostalgia for paintings of scenes that embodied American virtues and could provide some sense of a common identity. In this painting, completed just three years after Lincoln's assassination, the president is portrayed as a young boy reading a book by the warm glow of a fire in the darkness of a modest room. The degree to which the boy is absorbed by his reading underscores Lincoln's avid quest for knowledge. The circumstances of his education were well known: he was born in a one-room log cabin to a poor family, to parents who could not read or write; he worked on the farm and went to school only when he could be spared; the family had few books, and these he read again and again, traveling many miles to borrow others. Lincoln himself had said of his childhood, "Reading was my favorite thing to do. ... I read while plowing the fields and riding my horse. At night I read by the light of the fire." Though LincolnÕs humble upbringing was often celebrated in print, it was rarely illustrated; this popular painting helped to make Lincoln a national emblem: the savior of the union who was also a common man-unpretentious, accessible, and responsive to people without influence.
- Type: Painting
- External Link: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1895.90/1895.90.JPG?lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=1;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=musart_an;select1=starts;q1=1895.90
- Medium: oil on canvas
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