Collections: Decorative Arts: The Council of War

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The Council of War

This sculptural group was a memorial to Abraham Lincoln and the recent war, and was marketed as such to a wide audience of upper-middle-class Americans. It represents the seated president receiving the map of a battle plan from General Ulysses S. Grant and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The sculptor John Rogers established his reputation for this type of narrative figure group by 1863 with a work titled Union Refugees, which was initially rendered in bronze. Rogers's method of patenting his designs and replicating them in plaster made him the first American to mass-produce sculpture for a popular market.

• Artist: John Rogers, American, 1829-1904
• Medium: Plaster
• Place Made: New York, USA
• Dates: 1868
• Dimensions: height: 23 1/2 in. (59.7 cm)
• Markings: Inscribed with maker's name.
• Inscriptions: Inscribed around front of base: "THE COUNCIL OF WAR"
• Collections: Decorative Arts
• Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, Everyday Life/A Nation Divided, 5th Floor
• Accession Number: 54.206
• Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roger L. Simons, by exchange
• Image: Overall, 54.206_acetate_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
John Rogers (American, 1829-1904). The Council of War, 1868. Plaster, height: 23 1/2 in. (59.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roger L. Simons, by exchange, 54.206 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 54.206_acetate_bw.jpg)
• Catalogue Description: Cast plaster sculpture of figural group. Civil War scene representing President Lincoln seated between Secretary of War Stanton (proper left) and General Grant (proper right), and reading a large paper. Figures are on a circular base flattened in back. Condition: Good repaired and painted.