ABSTRACT
The Scottish photographer Alexander Gardner’s portrait of Abraham Lincoln (g. 3.1), sixteenth president of the United States of America, has strong historical associations with the American Civil War. This portrait pre-dates his Gettysburg Speech (‘government by the people, for the people…’) and for many people the image and the words Lincoln used at this time are connected. His austere looks had been revealed to the American public through carte-de-visite portraits they may have seen. These images had helped to establish his celebrity. The power of the image resides in its apparent truth claims as a photographic representation that captures a likeness of the man. It is, however, equally reliant on portrait conventions established in academic art. These include various ways of making the image correspond with the reputation and status of the sitter. He appears in the portrait as a mature man who knows the world. His posture is erect and he makes direct eye contact with the viewer. Light catches his forehead in a way that conveys intelligence and thoughtful reection. It is a construction of iconic dignity and statesmanship. These are rhetorical devices well-known to the portrait artist and yet despite its staged effect the psychological force of the image resides in the knowledge that Lincoln was there in front of camera and now appears to us as a manifestation of the man rather than a mere picture.
