Abraham Lincoln Portrait.

LINCOLN, Abraham.

Item Number: 109547

Cincinnati : E.C. Middleton, 1864.

Rare oleographic portrait of Abraham Lincoln by E.C. Middleton. With Middleton’s Warranted Oil Colors imprint to the verso of the frame dated 1864. Between 1861 and 1873, E.C. Middleton of Cincinnati published a series oval oleographic portraits intended to have the appearance of oil paintings including thirteen “Portraits of American Statesmen and Heroes.” Middleton invented the method of oleography which used the process of chromolithographic printing with oil based inks mounted on canvas. The portraits were exclusively sold in frames directly through agents by subscription. In fine condition. Framed. The portrait measures 17 inches by 14 inches. The entire piece measures 22 inches by 19 inches. Rare and desirable.

Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He led the United States through its Civil War, and in doing so preserved the Union of the United States of America, abolished slavery, and strengthened the federal government. Lincoln began constructing his cabinet on election night and sought to create a cabinet that would unite the Republican party. His eventual cabinet would include his primary rivals for the Republican nomination and although his appointees held differing views on economic issues all were opposed to the expansion of slavery into the territories of the United States. The most senior cabinet post of Secretary of State was appointed to William Seward who had recently failed to win the 1860 Republican presidential nomination and Lincoln's choice for Secretary of the Treasury was Ohio Senator Salmon P. Chase, Seward's primary political rival and the leader of a radical faction of the Republican party that sought the immediate abolition of slavery.