Waugh, Samuel. "The Lincoln Family."

After Samuel Waugh.  "The Lincoln Family."

Portland, Maine: George Stimson, 1871. 17 x 24 1/2 (image plus margins). Lithograph. Several tears into image expertly repaired with staining in the margins. Print has been professionally conserved. Else, good condition.

This print is an exact copy, but in reverse, of Samuel Waugh's well known earlier executed image of the Lincoln family. Lincoln is shown with his two sons and wife surrounded by elegant furnishings of the White House. The family is grouped around a covered table, upon which lie two books, including the Bible. Lincoln and Tad sit to the right and above Lincoln's right shoulder is a bust of George Washington, linking the martyred president with the 'father of the nation.' Outside the draped window is the outline of the Capitol dome, completed during Lincoln's terms. Mary Lincoln sits to the left and Robert stands in the center between his parents. Over Robert's shoulder is a portrait of William Lincoln, who had died in 1862. The use of clever symbolic lighting and artifacts, which was characteristic of portrait painting at this time. One such symbol shows a collection of flowers in a vase which contains the Roses of the North, and the Small Magnolia, Sweet Clematis, and Virginia Creeper of the South all intertwined in harmony, emblematic of the friendly feeling that should exist between the people of the North and South.