
<p>Lorado Taft praised Daniel Chester French as “the dean of American sculptors.” French specialized in large-scale marble statues, private memorials, and portrait busts. Here the sculptor captured Abraham Lincoln in a difficult hour of decision, and the president’s expression is more serious and thoughtful than in French’s earlier bronze of the standing <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artworks/103114">Lincoln</a> (1984.1130). This bronze is a reduced version of the full-size statue in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., which French worked on with the architect Henry Bacon. French’s brother, William M. R. French, was the first director of the Art Institute, serving from 1879 to 1914.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1916
- Medium
- Bronze
- Dimensions
- H.: 83.8 cm (33 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Daniel Chester French
Artist

Sculpture
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works include The Minute Man, an 1874 statue in Concord, Massachusetts, and his 1920 monumental statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Full artist profile →More
More by Daniel Chester French
Winged Victory
1921 · bronze
American Red Cross War Council Medal
1920 · bronze
Medal Commemorating the Completion of Catskill Aqueduct
1918 · bronze
Medal Commemorating the Catskill Aqueduct
1917 · Bronze
Abraham Lincoln
1916 · Bronze
Statue of the Republic, Chicago, Illinois, Elevation and Plan
1915 · Ink and ink wash or watercolor on paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Daniel Chester French
- Year
- 1916
- Medium
- Bronze
- Dimensions
- H.: 83.8 cm (33 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1916-013576
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified


