Life Mask of Abraham Lincoln
Leonard Wells Volk American
Augustus Saint-Gaudens American
The Chicago sculptor Volk produced casts of Abraham Lincoln’s face and hands in spring 1860, during his first presidential campaign. In 1886 Saint-Gaudens, collectors Thomas B. Clarke and Erwin Davis, and journalist Richard W. Gilder purchased the original plaster casts to present to the Smithsonian Institution. To finance the donation, they sold casts after Volk’s originals, with production supervised by Saint-Gaudens.The cast hand is also in the Met's collection (2007.185.1).
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