Francis Bicknell Carpenter

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.

Family Carpenter was born to Asaph Harmon and Almira Clark (1801–1885). He was one of nine children. Herbert died in 1926; Cora lived until 1960.

Education In 1844, 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, for six months 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. Carpenter was elected to the National Academy of Design as an associate member in 1852.

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. Frémont, the first Republican presidential candidate. Carpenter was deeply moved by Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, calling it "an act unparalleled for moral grandeur in the history of mankind." Carpenter felt "an intense desire to do something expressive of appreciation of the great issues 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 Representative 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 then 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 Mathew 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.

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. on May 23, 1900, in New York and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Homer, Cortland County, New York. 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 in Homer, and the Homer Central School District.

Portrait of Mary Lincoln First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, photographed by Mathew Brady. Compare to the forged portrait here. On February 12, 1929, The New York Times reported the discovery of a new painting of Mary Lincoln. It reported that this painting was by Francis Bicknell Carpenter. This painting was reproduced in different biographies and books such as Mary Lincoln: Wife and Widow by Carl Sandburg, printed in 1932.

The owner, Ludwig Pflum (aka Lew Bloom), sold it through the Milch Galleries in New York. It was acquired by Jessie Harlan Lincoln, the President's and Mary Lincoln's granddaughter. There is no record of what the painting sold for. Pflum, a former vaudeville performer who dabbled in painting on the side, as Lew Bloom, claimed the painting of Mary Lincoln had not yet been presented and done in secret at the bequest of Mrs. Lincoln by the painter Francis Carpenter. After the assassination of President Lincoln, Bloom claimed Mrs. Lincoln refused it and the painting was sold to a Philadelphia shipbuilder, Jacob G. Neafi. Bloom also claimed that after the death of Mrs. Neafie, Mr. Neafie gave the painting to Susan Bloom for her kindness and caring for Mrs. Neafie through her long illness.