Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/159

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SOME GREAT PORTRAITS OF LINCOLN.
345

LINCOLN IN 1864. AGE 55.
From a photograph by Brady, in the War Department Collection.

the only portrait we have of Lincoln which compares in the loftiness and resolution of its expression with the Macomb picture. This mask Mr. Volk made in Chicago in 1860, only a short time before Mr. Lincoln's nomination to the Presidency, and it must be considered the most perfectly characteristic portrait we have of Lincoln when first elected President of the United States. Although it gives with perfect truthfulness the rugged features which, when considered separately, led people to pronounce his face "ugly," these features are not what strike one in the mask. We see rather the kindliness of its lines, the splendid thoughtfulness of the brow, the firm yet sweet curve of the lips, and, particularly, the fine expression of dignity and power. It is, in fact, a face of the truest distinction and the profoundest interest.

IV.—The portrait which follows the mask (page 342) was taken in August, 1860, for Mr. J. Henry Brown, a miniature painter of Philadelphia, who had gone to Springfield to paint a portrait of Mr. Lin-