Sold – Artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter, Who Lived For Six Months in the Lincoln White House While Painting “First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation,” Repeats Lincoln’s Favorite Poem

Artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter was hired to paint a large canvas depicting the “First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation”, which was to show President Lincoln and his Cabinet at that momentous moment. From February-July 1864, Carpenter set up a studio in the State Dining Room of the White House and was given free access to Lincoln’s office and had much interaction with the President, his family and his Cabinet. After Lincoln’s assassination, Carpenter wrote his “Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln,” with first hand accounts of the Lincoln White House which he witnessed while doing his famous painting, as well as anecdotes from other sources about President Lincoln. Published in 1866, it was widely considered authoritative, as Carpenter had seen Lincoln every day, he had no political agenda, and was trusted as a reliable observer.

Lincoln loved reading Shakeseare and Robert Burns, and recited their works from memory. He liked “Oh why should the spirt of mortal be proud!”, a poem by William Knox written early in the 19th century. Lincoln, however, was long unaware of the poem’s author. Union General James Grant Wilson recalled: “I called at the White House once with Isaac N. Arnold, a member of Congress from Chicago. In the course of conversation the President expressed his admiration for Dr. Holmes’s poem ‘‘The Last Leaf’…His favorite poem, he said, was one entitled Mortality’, the author of which he had failed to discover, although he had tried to do so. I was pleased to be able to inform him that it was written by William Knox, a young Scottish poet who died in 1825. He was greatly interested, and was still more gratified by the receipt, not long afterwards, of a collection of Knox’s poems, containing his favorite.”

In this Autograph Quotation Signed, Carpenter testifies: “‘Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud?’ Mr. Lincoln’s favorite poem.” A wonderful piece of Lincolniana, and a unique one in our experiance. It comes with an original flyer for his book dated 1866.