Abraham Lincoln Art Gallery. Com"Prairie Lawyer" Essays on Art, Sculpture, and Abraham Lincoln By Bronze Portrait and Figure Sculptor James J. Nance
Background information on Abraham Lincoln's "Prairie Lawyer" bronze portrait by Sculptor James J. Nance
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Artist Essays
Essay 5 of 10
"Prairie Lawyer": Lincoln on the Threshold of GreatnessIn creating the "Prairie Lawyer," I imagined Mr. Lincoln as he might have been in 1860, charged with energy after his successful Cooper Union address in New York on February 25th, eight months before his election as President of the United States. This Lincoln is robust, full of life, hope, and eagerness to meet the challenges of the future.
Lincoln, self taught, hard working, and intelligent, understood the value of knowledge, the wisdom of the Constitution, and the necessity of the law. His convictions led to an early interest in politics, and he served four successive terms in the Illinois stat legislature and one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He did not seek re-election, choosing instead to return to Springfield and his thriving law practice. Despite his decision to avoid politics, threatening national events, and the impending spread of slavery (made possible through the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854), forced his strong moral convictions to return to the political arena. Above all else, Lincoln's face shows those moral convictions- convictions strong enough to bring this humble man to greatness.This is the face, on the threshold of greatness, that addressed the audience at the Cooper Union rally in February, 1860. It is a face that possesses the experience of fifty one years on the frontier of America. A face that shows through sunburn and lines the hardship of his early life and the character of his intellectual development. A face that wears many personal tragedies, yet is still graced with the wrinkles of laughter and the kindness of soul. If there has ever been a face that possessed both humility and greatness, it is the face of the "Prairie Lawyer," Abraham Lincoln.
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Lincoln's
meteoric rise to national prominence actually began two years before with his unsuccessful
attempt to win the Illinois Senate seat from Stephen A. Douglas. Although
he lost the election, his series of historic debates with Douglas launched him
on his journey to the White House. After two years on the campaign trail,
his passion for his political beliefs was well known, and his reputation for
strength and stamina- the "Illinois Rail Splitter" image - was
well earned.
