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Abraham Lincoln
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Adalbert Volck included in a series of etchings titled
Great American Tragedians, Comedians, Clowns and Rope
Dancers in Their Favorite Characters this one of Lincoln
as Don Quixote, the errant knight in Cervantes’s popular
novel of the same name. Satiric symbolism infuses every
aspect of this potent, yet subtle drawing. The image of
the President is reminiscent of the contemplative Lincoln
photographed by Brady’s Washington studio in late
February 1861. Lincoln, holding a quill pen, has made
a list of Union defeats; his inkwell is in the shape of
an artillery mortar. His foot rests irreverently on a
stack of books labeled “Constitution,” “Law,”
and “Habeas Corpus.” Beside the legs of Lincoln’s
chair lie a rail and an ax, allusions to his humble beginnings,
and resting against the seat back is a John Brown pike,
a symbol associating Lincoln with abolition and anarchy.
The picture on the wall is of Lincoln’s first commander
of the army, General Winfield Scott. Nicknamed Old Fuss
and Feathers, Scott is bedecked all in feathers. |
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Adalbert John Volck (1828–1912)
Etching, 1861
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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