Francis Bicknell Carpenter

Lincoln met with his cabinet on July 22, 1862 for the first reading of a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. Use a cursor to identify who is in the picture. Oil on canvas, 1864. Sight measurement. Height: 108 inches (274.32 cm) Width: 180 inches (457.2 cm)

Francis Bicknell Carpenter (August 6, 1830–May 23, 1900) was an American painter born in Homer, New York. Carpenter is best known for his painting First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, which is hanging in the United States Capitol. Carpenter resided with President Lincoln at the White House and in 1866 published his one volume memoir Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln. Carpenter was a descendant of the New England Rehoboth Carpenter Family.

Early life

Carpenter was born in the town of Homer, New York to Asaph and Almira Carpenter. Asaph Carpenter was a farmer. The family farm was located between the village of Homer and the hamlet of Little York, on what is now US Route 11. Francis Carpenter exhibited signs of artistic leanings at an early age; “from the age of eight he drew on every available surface, once chalking a scene of the capture of Major John Andre on the side of the family barn”. Carpenter also lettered and painted signs for local businesses. Carpenter’s father was not initially enthusiastic about his son’s artistic pursuits, at one point calling them “nonsense”; he apprenticed his son, unsuccessfully, to a grocer at the age of thirteen.

Education

One year later—after showing his father a painting of his mother that the former viewed as a success—Carpenter was allowed to go to Syracuse, New York to study under Sanford Thayer. In 1848, at age 18, he was awarded a purchase prize by the American Art-Union. By the age of twenty-one, Carpenter established a studio in New York City.

Early career

In 1852, Carpenter was commissioned to paint a portrait of President Millard Fillmore, a fellow upstate New Yorker born in Cayuga County. Commissions followed for portraits of Presidents Franklin Pierce and John Tyler, and other mid-19th century notables, including the clergyman Henry Ward Beecher; newspaper editor Horace Greeley; Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University; James Russell Lowell, poet; and John C. Fremont, the first Republican presidential candidate.

First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln

According to his memoir, Six Months at the White House, Carpenter was deeply moved by Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, calling it “an act unparalleled for moral grandeur in the history of mankind”, and Carpenter felt "an intense desire to do something expressive of...the great moral issue involved in the war." Carpenter, having formulated his idea for the subject of the painting and outlined its composition, fortuitously met Frederick A. Lane, a friend who recently had earned a large amount of money. Bankrolled by Lane, and through the influence of Samuel Sinclair of the New York Tribune and Congressman Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, Carpenter gained Lincoln’s assent to travel to Washington and work with him on the painting. Carpenter met with the President on February 6, 1864, and began work.

Carpenter began with many sketches of Cabinet members and of Lincoln himself, working from life, as Lincoln worked, and from photographs taken by Matthew Brady of Lincoln and members of his Cabinet. Carpenter was given free access to Lincoln’s White House office for the former purpose, and the State Dining Room was given him for a studio. On 12 July, 1864, Lincoln led his cabinet into the State Dining Room to view the completed work.

Exhibition of First Reading and reception

When Lincoln had the painting exhibited to the public in the East Room of the White House, Carpenter noted that the exhibition was thronged with visitors. An engraving of the painting was made by Alexander Hay Ritchie for mass reproduction. The painting was well received by critics, according to newspaper advertisements for those reproductions; also, many of the subjects in the painting commented favorably. The painting itself then toured the country.

Purchase and donation to Congress

Carpenter campaigned for Congress to purchase the painting, enlisting the help of fellow Homer native William O. Stoddard, Lincoln's private secretary. Congress did not appropriate the money. The painting remained in Carpenter’s possession until 1877, when he arranged for Elizabeth Thompson to purchase it for $25,000 and donate it to Congress. A joint session of Congress was held in 1878, on Lincoln’s birthday, to serve as a reception for the painting. The artist was present at this event.

Later career and death

Following Lincoln's assassination, Carpenter produced many portraits of the President and his family; some based on memory, others on photographs provided by Lincoln’s widow. Carpenter’s skills were in decline by this time. One admirer of Carpenter’s early work wondered if a later portrait of Lincoln was a forgery.

By the late 1870s, Carpenter became increasingly interested in religion and spirituality; art historian Mary Bartlett Cowdrey believed “that religious obsession somehow undermined Carpenter’s work”. Carpenter died in New York City—a brief obituary appearing in the New York Times misstated the title of his most famous work. His body was returned to Homer, and he was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in that village.

Criticism and later exhibitions of Carpenter’s work

Carpenter’s legacy has been decidedly mixed, according to a retrospective of Carpenter’s career written for the American Art Journal. Cowdrey attempted a full-scale biography that might have helped his reputation, but became frustrated by lack of interest on the part of Carpenter’s family. Contemporary critic Henry T. Tuckerman acknowledged Carpenter’s “facility in capturing a likeness” but “criticized the artist’s lack of ‘grace’ and ‘vitality’”. The United States Senate Catalogue of Fine Art observes that First Reading, as it hangs today in the Capitol, contains a much weaker portrait of Lincoln than the engraving made from it. This is due to Carpenter’s obsessive tinkering with the original painting while he had it in his possession.

In 2006, an exhibition of portraits by Carpenter was shown at the Center for the Arts[1] in Homer, New York. Portraits by Carpenter of several figures of local historical interest were exhibited. Loans of the works were obtained from community members, the Phillips Free Library[2] in Homer, and the Homer Central School District[3].