Abraham Lincoln (1865) by W. F. K. TraversSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
Dutch artist W.F.K. Travers completed this portrait of Abraham Lincoln from life in 1865.
During the same year, the Civil War ended, and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. At nine feet tall by six feet wide, this life-size painting captures the enormity of the challenges Lincoln faced as U.S. president.
Travers’s painting reflects the greatest struggle of the early American republic—the inability to reconcile the existence of slavery with U.S. democratic ideals. The imagery represents the issues dividing the Union.
By including images of George Washington in his painting, Travers intended to link America’s first president and Abraham Lincoln. Ironically, Washington, like many Founders, was an enslaver.
Travers references Emmanuel Leutze's iconic 1851 work, Washington Crossing the Delaware.
Washington Crossing the Delaware Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) by Emanuel LeutzeThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Leutze’s original painting celebrated Washington’s successful surprise attack during the 1776 Battle of Trenton, a turning point in the American Revolution.
Abraham Lincoln (1865) by W. F. K. TraversSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
While not an exact copy, this sculpture resembles Jean-Antoine Houdon’s acclaimed full-sized statue on display at the Virginia State Capitol. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin selected Houdon for the commission. Houdon observed and measured Washington to ensure its accuracy.
As president, Lincoln sought to restore the Union that George Washington helped build. When Lincoln left his home in Springfield, Illinois, for the White House in 1861, he told the crowd, “I now leave . . . with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington.”
In Travers’s painting, the globe is turned to Haiti, the site of another important revolution and part of a larger region significant to both Travers and Lincoln. As a young child, Travers lived in Trujillo (now in Honduras) where his father served as the official Dutch Consul.
Richmond Barthé (1928) by Emelie Danielson NicholsonSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
In 1862, Lincoln established diplomatic relations with Haiti, decades after formerly enslaved Haitians won their independence in 1804. This later bust of revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture is by Richmond Barthé, who sculpted monuments to the Haitian Revolution.
Abraham Lincoln (1865) by W. F. K. TraversSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
Here Lincoln holds a bound copy of the U.S. Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment, which would permanently prohibit slavery in 1865, lies on the table.
Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley, Friday, August 22, 1862 (Clipping from Aug. 23, 1862 Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, D.C.) (1862) by Abraham LincolnSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
While there is evidence Lincoln personally opposed slavery, his initial focus as president was to restore the Union and end the Civil War. He did not necessarily seek to end slavery, as he explained in this 1862 letter to journalist Horace Greeley.
Completely Silenced. Dead Confederate Artillerymen, as They Lay Around Their Battery After the Battle of Antietam. Completely Silenced. Dead Confederate Artillerymen, as They Lay Around Their Battery After the Battle of Antietam. (1863) by Alexander GardnerThe J. Paul Getty Museum
But with casualties and political pressure mounting, Lincoln recognized the moral and strategic importance of freeing enslaved persons. On September 17, 1862, alone, over 22,000 people were killed or wounded as the Union defeated Confederate forces in the Battle of Antietam.
The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet (1866) by Alexander Hay RitchieSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that enslaved people in rebellious areas, “henceforward shall be free.”
Abraham Lincoln (1865) by W. F. K. TraversSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
The proclamation inspired many artworks, including John Quincy Adams Ward’s The Freedman. This was likely Travers’s model for the sculpture of a recently freed enslaved person shown here above the Thirteenth Amendment.
The Freedman (1863, cast 1891) by John Quincy Adams WardThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Popular and widely copied, Ward’s sculpture depicts a newly liberated man rising to stand with his chains broken, but still prominent. It illustrates the uncertain status of enslaved persons before their freedom was guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln (1865) by W. F. K. TraversSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
In early 1865, Lincoln urged the House of Representatives to send the Thirteenth Amendment to the states for ratification. It read: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Assassination of President Lincoln (c. 1865) by Unidentified ArtistSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
Lincoln, however, would not live to see it become law. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, and passed away early the next morning. The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment was certified in December that same year.
George Washington (Lansdowne Portrait) (1796) by Gilbert StuartSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
Travers first exhibited his portrait of Lincoln in Europe. In 1876, it was displayed near Gilbert Stuart’s “Lansdowne” painting of George Washington in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Centennial Exhibition.
Abraham Lincoln (1865) by W. F. K. TraversSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
Congress declined to purchase the painting twice before it came under the care of the Rockefeller family. Travers’s portrait is currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery courtesy of the Hartley Dodge Foundation and the citizens of the Borough of Madison, New Jersey.
Abraham Lincoln by W.F.K. Travers, courtesy of the Hartley Dodge Foundation, and courtesy of the citizens of the Borough of Madison, New Jersey. Photo: Joe Painter, courtesy of the Hartley Dodge Foundation.
