Focus on Bust of Abraham Lincoln (Borglum) and discuss the Marble original sculpture.
Borglum made the original bust directly from Alabama marble without a prior plaster model, based on photographs and an 1860 life mask of Lincoln's face made by Leonard Volk.  The likeness was praised by Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln in 1908: "I think it is the most extraordinarily good portrait of my father I have ever seen."It stands about 40 in (100 cm) high, weighs about 375 lb (170 kg), and is signed and dated "Gutzon Borglum/1908".  The distinctive face of Lincoln, without a beard, emerges from the rough rock, similar in style to sculptures by Michelangelo and Auguste Rodin, and also similar to Borglum's sculptures at Mount Rushmore, which includes a bearded Lincoln.  Borglum also made a statue of Seated Lincoln, installed in Newark, New Jersey in 1911.
The sculpture was donated to Congress by the New York financier Eugene Meyer Jr., as recorded on the marble pedestal also designed by Borglum on which the bust was installed in 1911.  For many decades it was displayed in United States Capitol rotunda, which still has a standing statue of Lincoln made by Vinnie Ream in 1871.  The bust was moved to the crypt below in 1979.The bust is part of the United States Capitol art collection, but it is not one of the sculptures of the National Statuary Hall Collection.  Two other sculptures by Borglum are in the National Statuary Hall Collection: a statue of Alexander Hamilton Stephens and a statue of Zebulon Baird Vance.
Robert Todd Lincoln United States Capitol rotunda United States Capitol art collection statue of Alexander Hamilton Stephens United States Capitol art standing statue of Lincoln Leonard Volk Vinnie Ream Seated Lincoln Alabama marble sculptures of the National Statuary Hall Collection Gutzon Borglum National Statuary Hall Collection Auguste Rodin Mount Rushmore Newark, New Jersey Eugene Meyer Jr. statue of Zebulon Baird Vance Michelangelo bust life mask