Gertrude Käsebier
1923
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Platinum print
13 1/2 x 10 in (34.3 x 25.4 cm)
 
Swann Galleries - New York
Sale 2208 Lot 34
 
On a period mount, with Kõsebier's signature, in pencil, on recto.
 
The Photograph and the American Dream 1840-1940, 39.
 
Kaesbier's son found a carte-de-visite of this image that Kasebier fell in love with. The photograph contained an endearing inscription from a Civil War soldier: "Linclin the Presadent he giebt to me." She enlarged the photograph to 11x14 inches, retouched the portrait, printed it in platinum and subsequently copyrighted her new picture. Although the negative appears to be heavily reworked, not all was in Kõsebier's hand.
 
A copy of this image was purchased by the Library of Congress and was later published in a Lincoln's birthday issue of The Outlook; it also appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in 1929.
 
LL/35582