Portrait of President Lincoln
Shortly after President Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, April 14 in 1865, artists endeavored to capture his likeness in painting, print, and sculpture for posterity. This work represents the first life-size steel engraving of the sixteenth United States President, begun by Henry Gugler in 1866, and completed by 1869. At the time, the engraving was valued at $10,000 and admired for its grand scale and verisimilitude.
German-born Henry Gugler (Wurttemberg, Germany 1816 —1880 Milwaukee, Wisconsin) came to New York City in 1853 and found free-lance employment engraving bank notes. But poor economic conditions around the country forced him to move back to his native Germany, living there from 1857-1859, where he engraved copies of artwork. He returned to New York and four years later was hired by the Washington DC Bureau of Engraving and Printing in early 1863.
Around 1866, Gugler left regular employment and retreated to tranquil Egg Harbor City, New Jersey, where he labored for two years on his Lincoln engraving. The portrait later appeared on five-dollar United States bank notes series issued in 1875, 1878, 1880, and 1907. Collectors today voraciously seek these five-dollar bills, as they are quite rare.
He based his Lincoln image in part on an oil portrait painted by John H. Littlefield in 1865, and the painter had a small part in designing the original plate for the piece (much to the consternation of Gugler). The copyright for the engraving was filed in the name of Littlefield in 1869, so without doubt he had a hand in the production. The painting was inspired by a photograph by Matthew Bradley, along with other photos of Lincoln. One may assume the Gugler and Littlefield visages of Lincoln are accurate portrayals, as painter Littlefield studied law for a short time in Lincoln’s office in Springfield, Illinois. The two developed a relationship, and because of President Lincoln’s influence, Littlefield garnered a job in the Treasury Department in 1862. Coincidentally, the engraver Henry Gugler also worked in the Treasury building, and this is where it is rumored that the two men met.
After completing his tour-de-force Lincoln steel engraving, Gugler went on to establish a successful career in printing. In Chicago he worked as a bank note engraver, and in 1871 moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he and his son formed a prominent printing company (Siefert, Gugler, and Company) a.k.a. Milwaukee Lithographing and Engraving. Later he and his two sons Julius and Henry Jr. established in 1878 Gugler Lithographic, which impressively handled all advertising for Pabst Brewing. The company grew by the decades, and by the 1940s counted as one of Wisconsin’s largest and most successful printing firms, with a nationwide portfolio of corporate clients. Gugler Lithographic ceased operations around in the 1970s, after being acquired by a handful of firms.
In 1955, Union League Club member Earle W. Grover donated Henry Gugler’s engraving, Portrait of President Lincoln, which hangs above the fireplace in the Lincoln Ballroom.
Sally Metzler, Ph.D., Director of the Art Collection
