Leonard WELLS VOLK (1828-1895, American)
Life mask of Abraham Lincoln
Taken in Chicago in 1680
Plaster
21 x 20 x 14 cm
Price: Price on Application
Leonard Wells Volk was a famous American sculptor. He went to posterity after making one of only two life masks of United States President Abraham Lincoln. In 1867 he helped establish the Chicago Academy of Design and served as its president until 1878. He made several large monumental sculptures, including the tomb of the politician Stephen A. Douglas, and statues of American Civil War figures.
From 1855-1857, Stephen A. Douglas, his wife's cousin, supported the family's travel to Rome so that Volk could pursue additional study.
Returning to the United States in 1857, Volk and his family settled in the booming city of Chicago, where he helped to establish the Chicago Academy of Design, precursor to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For eight years, he served as its director and taught numerous students, including Elbridge Ayer Burbank, who became noted for his more than 1200 portraits of Native Americans.
In 1860, Volk made a life mask of Abraham Lincoln. Only one other was made, by Clark Mills in 1865. In the early part of spring 1860, during Lincoln's visit to Chicago, Volk asked him to sit for a bust. The artist decided to start by doing a life mask in order to eliminate the need for several sittings. Lincoln found the process of letting wet plaster dry on his face, followed by a skin-stretching removal process, "anything but agreeable". But he maintained good humor, and was pleased with the final bust. He declared it "the animal himself". Volk later used the life mask and bust of 1860 as the basis for other versions of Lincoln, including a full-size statue. The life mask was also studied by other artists, such as Daniel Chester French.
In 1860 Volk made molds of the face and hands of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The life mask reproduces Lincoln’s beardless face as it appeared during his first presidential campaign. In 1886 Saint-Gaudens, the collectors Thomas B. Clarke and Erwin Davis, and the journalist Richard W. Gilder together purchased the original plaster casts to present to the Smithsonian Institution. To finance the donation, they sold bronze and plaster casts after Volk’s originals, with production supervised by Saint-Gaudens.
Reference: Leonard Wells Volk, The Lincoln life-mask and how it was made, 1881.