Explore the Description of this artwork, Young Abe Lincoln.
Young Abe Lincoln is an oversized, rough style  bronze sculpture of an adolescent Abraham Lincoln.  He wears a shirt, pants raised above the ankle and is barefoot.  His left hand holds a book with the index finger holding his place.   The sculpture sits outside of the Indiana Government Center in Indianapolis, which is adjacent to the Indiana Statehouse. The sculpture measures 108 inches in height by 30 inches in width by 38 1/2 in depth and sits upon a red granite tripartite pedestal that measures 74 inches in height by 82 inches in width by 92 inches in depth.  It weighs over 1,500 pounds.  A foundry mark can be seen on the front of the pedestal MODERN/ART/FDRY/N.Y. The artist signature (D.K. Rubins) and copyright date (1962) can be seen on the rear, proper right side base of the sculpture.Based on a forty six inch plaster mold, a three-dimensional pantograph was used to create a rough, hollow framework of the full-size model of the sculpture from wood. The surface layer of this framework was coated with a layer of oil-base non-hardening clay called plastelene and then the detail work of the sculpture was done by hand.A plaster mold was placed over the finished clay framework and allowed to dry. The mold was then removed, creating a positive plaster cast of the framework.  This cast is a replica of the clay covered framework.The lost-wax casting method was then used to create the actual bronze sculpture.  This process took over five months to complete.
The thoughts that concerned me most in making this statue were the necessities of representing a vital energy, lean physical strength, and a tree-like growth suggestive of the strong roots of character that were growing and manifest as early as his Indiana years. In the rather knotty and active forms of the body, I have tried to express that, as well as the rough warmth of his frontier humanity and the ungainliness of his bony frame.
In the simple but rough-surfaced pedestal, and in the quiet shadowed, thoughtful head, I wanted to suggest the very simple, classic character of his mind - as well as the loneliness and tragedy of his life.
In the hair, I tried for boyishness and humor. I felt it unimportant to invent a purely imaginary portrait of how Lincoln might have looked at twenty-one years. Our knowledge of his appearance, on which the popular symbol of Lincoln is based, is from photographs taken after his fortieth year; my face, therefore, is a compromise between the unknown Indiana youth and the pre-presidential Illinois lawyer.
The true look of Lincoln during his Indiana years is as unimportant as  the historical accuracy of his clothing. In favor of representing his character and his contemporary significance to the best advantage, I have subordinated every literal element except the book. In the light of Lincoln's whole life, the axe is unimportant as the book.The placement of the figure was chosen for two reasons: I felt that Lincoln should be placed back among the trees on the plaza, since the forest was his Indiana experience; and it would be difficult to compete in scale with the open plaza and building were the figure to be placed in the open.  Too large a figure in sculpture produces an inhuman and unreal effect.
In 1992, Save Outdoor Sculpture! surveyed this piece and found it to be well maintained.
proper right Indianapolis scale plaster pantograph right wood bronze plaster cast lost-wax casting Indiana pedestal Abraham Lincoln Save Outdoor Sculpture! granite clay Indiana Statehouse Indiana Government Center