Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/160

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
There was a problem when proofreading this page.
346
SOME GREAT PORTRAITS OE LINCOLN.

MR. LINCOLN AND HIS SON THOMAS, FAMILIARLY KNOWN AS "TAD." ABOUT 1864. BY BRADY.

coln. It has never been reproduced before. It is particularly interesting because it shows an expression not common in Lincoln's portraits, although one frequent in his face—a look of patient melancholy which overtook him when weary, discouraged, or even uninterested. The expression vanished at once when his thoughts or emotions were aroused.

V.—The portrait on page 343 was probably taken early in February, 1861. It is one of the first portraits in which Lincoln wears a beard. The beard certainly softened the ruggedness of his face somewhat, and hid slightly the deep hollow of his cheeks; but it is not this which gives the charm to this particular portrait; it is, instead, the gentleness of the expression and the steady kindness of the deep-set eyes. There is not in existence, perhaps, another portrait of Mr. Lincoln in which the tenderness of his nature is so perfectly expressed.

VI.—One of the finest of the many photographs of the Presidential period is that on page 344, which is now first published. General Charles Hamlin of Bangor, Maine, to whom Lincoln gave the picture, says of the incident: