The Healy Portrait

I believe Abraham Lincoln possessed more
of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness,
than any other man I had ever met

—General William T. Sherman

In my office at home there’s a framed painting of Abraham Lincoln on my wall. It’s an oil-on-canvas painting by George Peter Alexander Healy. Lincoln is leaning forward in a chair, his elbow on his knee. His chin propped up by his hand, deep in contemplation….as if fixated in a crack on a nearby wall. Lincoln’s son Robert was so taken with the painting that he purchased it himself. "I have never seen a portrait of my father which is to be compared with it in any way”, he said.

Robert’s wife eventually bequeathed it to the White House, where it currently hangs in the State Dining Room….assuming of course it hasn’t been replaced by the current occupant with….well….a portrait of the current occupant.