
Read the visual description
The head and shoulders of a cleanshaven, light-skinned man with black hair and a lined face is shown against a dark background in this vertical portrait. His body is angled to our right and he looks in that direction with blue-gray eyes under black brows. His hair is combed loosely back from his face but one lock falls onto his forehead, and it curls around the ear we can see. His prominent cheekbones are lightly flushed over hollow cheeks, which create noticeable shadows. He has a long nose, and his thin pink lips are closed. His forehead, the corners of his eyes, and the areas around his mouth and chin are lined with wrinkles. His black suit jacket has wide rounded lapels over a white buttoned shirt. The collar folds over a black bow tie and the two buttons visible on this shirt shine. Next to his left shoulder, on our right, the artist signed and dated the work with red paint: “G.P.A. Healy 1860.”
National Gallery of Art · Painting
Abraham Lincoln
George Peter Alexander Healy
- Date
- 1860
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 76.2 × 63.5 cm (30 × 25 in.) framed: 100 × 87.3 × 14.6 cm (39 3/8 × 34 3/8 × 5 3/4 in.)
- Classification
- Painting
- Accession number
- 2014.79.22
- Credit line
- Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund, 1879)
- Time span
- 1851 to 1875
- Department
- CAB
Subjects and terms
- painted surface
- American
- Acquired after publication of American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I [A-L]
- Realist
- bust 3/4 left
- portrait
- Lincoln, Abraham
Provenance
Commissioned 1860 by Thomas B. Bryan [1828-1906], Chicago;[1] purchased 1879 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington;[2] acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] Letter, Thomas B. Bryan to Abraham Lincoln, 10 November 1860, published in Marie de Mare, _G.P.A. Healy, American Artist_, New York, 1954: 190-191. [2] Letter, W.W. Corcoran to G.P.A. Healy, 3 May 1879 (William W. Corcoran Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington).
Inscription
center right: G.P.A Healy / 1860
NGA object ID 166453. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.