[Americana] Lincoln, Abraham Photographic Portrait

Chicago: S.M. Fassett, (before 1875). Oval albumen portrait of a beardless Lincoln, second generation printing, mounted to card. "S.M. Fassett, Photographer Chicago" studio credit in letterpress along left edge; contemporary MS. below photograph reads, "From Life-1860...S.M. Fassett, Chicago." Residue from mat along card edges, affecting letters in photographer's credit; an additional contemporary MS. below photograph repeating the above text, and is now obscured by same mounting residue. In mat and frame, 17 1/8 x 15 in. (435 x 381 mm). Ostendorf 16

A beardless Lincoln is photographed here by S.M. Fassett in October of 1859, a year after his defeat to Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 senate elections, and only a few months before his famous Cooper Union speech in New York City on February 27, 1860 that helped turn the tide of his political career and saw him propelled to the forefront for the presidency in the election of 1860. The negative for this photograph was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and first generation photos are very rare. This image, when compared to other known first generation images, appears much more painterly, indicating a likely second generation photograph created after the original negative was destroyed. Around 1875 Fassett moved to Washington, D.C. to become photographer to the Supervising Architect of the Department of the Treasury. Mrs. Lincoln is reported as saying that this was her favorite photograph of her late husband.

Provenance

From a Philadelphia collection.