Henry Ward Beecher

Artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter (Born in Homer, New York, 1830–1900)

Date1858

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions34 x 27 inches (86.4 x 68.6 cm)

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineGift of T. S. Peterson

Object number1971.4.1

Collections

ART OF THE UNITED STATES

Label TextThe only artist to have painted President Abraham Lincoln’s portrait from life, Francis Bicknell Carpenter is best known for his memoir detailing the experience, Six Months at the White House: The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln, published in 1866. Carpenter was a portrait painter from Upstate New York with minimal training, who worked throughout the Northeast region of the country and opened a studio in New York City in the early 1850s. He had early success painting prominent Americans, including the clergyman, abolitionist, and social reformer, Henry Ward Beecher. Beecher was the first pastor of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, and he developed a great following through his dramatic preaching style. This portrait was painted at a time when Beecher was acquiring a national reputation, due in part to the publication of his sermons.

Recently rediscovered in the Nasher Museum’s storage and conserved extensively to repair several damaged areas, this painting is on view for the first time in decades. A good example of pre-Civil War portraiture, it shows the sitter in a relaxed pose and three-quarter profile.