I really like this sculpture.
This bust of Abraham Lincoln was made by one of the most famous American artists of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. This is actually a replica of a head from a full-length sculpture that stands in Lincoln Park in Chicago. Lincoln is looking slightly downwards, as if he is thinking or about to speak. Saint-Gaudens was working from photographs and a cast "life-mask" of Lincoln's face, since Lincoln was already dead (assassinated in 1865) by this time.
Why is Lincoln looking down?
Good question. The sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens is depicting the President as a noble man, lost in thought. I think the downward tilt of the head helps the artist convey this emotion. Would you agree?
Yes! I also think it conveys the solemnity of leading a country through war.
I agree, there's also a very humanizing quality about it.
I love this piece but were Lincoln's eyebrows really this big?
Since the artist, Saint-Gaudens, based Lincoln’s likeness on plaster life casts of the president’s head, we are assuming that this is indeed what Lincoln looked like.