Lincoln by Norman Rockwell – An Illustrated Story in Six Paintings

"If you want to exalt a subject, you shoot up
at him," Norman Rockwell once remarked.
Shown here with his 1964 painting, "Young
Woodcutter."

Norman Rockwell was one of the Twentieth Century’s most popular illustrators of American culture and history.

Many of us remember his illustrations because we grew up during his heyday. Our grandparents and parents used to laugh at some of them and sometimes share a story from their past that a Rockwell illustration brought to mind. Even as young people, we, too, enjoyed some of his  illustrations because they recalled for us a key moment or just an everyday moment in our lives.

And now, all these years later, even our children and grandchildren enjoy or identify with different Rockwell illustrations. They don’t know the man, but they enjoy his art.

He tapped something in all of us…and he still does.

📖 Norman Rockwell - Storyteller

Rockwell (1894-1978) produced more than 4,000 original works in his career. Memorable illustrations like “The Problem We All Live With” (1964) that President Barak Obama hung in the White House, and the popular Thanksgiving Picture – “Freedom from Want” (1943) - are just some of his many works.

But he is most remembered for his 400 magazine cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, Look, and Boys’ Life magazines – spanning over fifty years.

Hired to produce paintings for magazine covers that attracted subscribers, Rockwell’s illustrations captured the attention of millions of people. And they still do. At Rockwell’s Medal of Freedom award ceremony in 1977, President Gerald Ford offered a reason for that popularity. They were, he said, “vivid and affectionate portraits of America.” [1]

But these ‘portraits’ are actually visual stories – complete stories - and often with a point.

Uniquely, Rockwell starts his stories with the climax. At first glance, the viewer knows the topic and the highpoint of the situation portrayed. However, through the details of the illustration, (the setting, clothes, colors, facial expressions, background, signs, etc.), the rest of his story emerges – tailored by each viewer’s own perceptions.

Oddly, ‘perception‘ is the main reason Rockwell’s stories endure. We all perceive his illustrations in different times and with different life experiences; therefore, the story in each picture continuously adapts itself with every new generation.

In addition to his renderings of American life and times, he also did many illustrations of famous people – especially American presidents and political statesmen.

And, of course, Abraham Lincoln was among them.

🎩 Abraham Lincoln – Subject

One of Rockwell’s favorite political subjects over the years was Abraham Lincoln, whom he considered a great man and America’s greatest president. Rockwell’s museum site notes that “no other statesman appears more in Norman Rockwell’s work than Abraham Lincoln, who is included in eight of the artist’s paintings between 1927 and 1975.” [1]

Rockwell used his simple, visual stories to clearly highlight the important moments in Lincoln’s life and words that Rockwell felt influenced the Story of America.

Though they weren’t painted in the chronological order of Lincoln’s life, six of Rockwell’s collective Lincoln paintings can be arranged in a chronological fashion that highlights the President’s life (and beyond).

Since our perceptions are the key to every story in Rockwell’s paintings, so it is with this illustrated story about Abraham Lincoln. I offer the following storyline based on my perceptions of these paintings from years of Lincoln studies. I hope you’ll add your own. Rockwell would enjoy that.

I give you:

Lincoln by Rockwell

CHAPTER ONE

Young Woodcutter  (1964)

“Lincoln the Railsplitter” (1964)

(“Young Woodcutter” was the original title)

Rockwell's Lincoln begins with his 1964 painting, Lincoln the Railsplitter (Young Woodcutter was its original title). Commissioned by the CEO of a Spokane, Washington bank, Rockwell earned $4,000 for it. [2]

The story opens with the canvas itself. Rockwell seems to use sculptor Daniel Chester French’s idea (Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.) of outsizing Lincoln to emphasis his greatness. Lincoln is painted on a seven feet tall but narrow canvas, to convey the sense of both his tall, lanky frame and his outsized stature. Rockwell further enhances this feeling of character and dignity by placing the viewer's perspective at the same level that French did with his memorial sculpture – at Lincoln’s feet.

But in the details of the painting are the rest of Lincoln’s story. The log cabin and split rail fence behind him and distant, indicate his origins. His sloppy manner of dressing portrays Lincoln as a common man of the times. His ax, red bandana, and plum-bob (hanging from his suspenders), portray the type of work that he did, and the attention to detail he gave it.

The two tree stumps in the foreground serve as a gate or portal through which the strong, young Lincoln is passing from his past into a different future. The coat is over his arm and his concentration on a book are the harbingers of where he’s going and that learning is leading the way.

CHAPTER TWO

Lincoln for the Defense (1961)

“Lincoln for the Defense” (1961)

Rockwell’s 1961 painting, Lincoln for the Defense, was created for a Saturday Evening Post story of almost the same title by Elisa Bialk. [3] It depicts the next phase of Lincoln’s life, as a country lawyer, and his most famous case.

The scene is Lincoln’s creative defense of Duff Armstrong in the 1858 "Almanac" murder trial. Also tall and narrow, the painting again puts the observer in the “Lincoln Memorial” viewpoint – at his feet looking up – again, to convey the continuing sense of Lincoln’s greatness.

Contradicting that assessment however is his appearance. Lincoln still appears haphazardly dressed. His shirt-sleeves – one rolled and one unrolled – and his loose suspenders again convey that his focus is on his work not on his fashion. His ruffled shirt shows his progress financially from the last chapter, and the spectacles indicate his aging or his poor eyesight perhaps from his extensive reading.

Lincoln’s fist on the law-book portrays his belief in the strict letter of the law. The open almanac in his other hand identifies the trial, and it speaks to Lincoln’s brilliance and legal creativity.

Lincoln’s client for that trial was Duff Armstrong, the son of Lincoln’s old friend Jack. Oddly, Armstrong is shown only as a shadowed outline and his shackled hands are held up to Lincoln, clasped in a pleading way. Though partly unshaded, the skin tone of his hands is still darker than Lincoln’s. These details form a reference to Lincoln’s anti-slavery views, and perhaps foreshadow Lincoln’s defense of his views in his famous 1858 debates with Stephen Douglas – three months after this trial.

The upward, distant gaze, his position in front of the table, and the duality of the shadowed client, all hint that Lincoln has a higher calling, and his life’s purpose is not yet done.

CHAPTER THREE

Mathew Brady Photographing Lincoln (1975)

“Abraham Lincoln and Mathew Brady” (1975)

Rockwell did this painting for the cover of the Chicago Sunday Magazine in 1975 – at the start of our Bi-Centennial Anniversary. It depicts President-elect Abraham Lincoln sitting for his first photograph in Washington, D.C. (February, 1861) with  Mathew Brady, the famous Civil War photographer. [4]

For once, Lincoln is shown neatly dressed, with shoes shined, his new beard, and his trademark hat nearby (seen for the first and only time in a Rockwell painting). Even the visual perspective is different. The earlier paintings placed the viewer at Lincoln’s feet. This painting places the viewer on the same level. Here’s why.

“It is typical, however, in that Rockwell takes us behind the scenes, capturing less a President beset by affairs of state than just another American at the mercy of early photography. With this humanizing impulse—vintage Rockwell—we can easily identify.” [4]

Besides adding that ‘humanizing‘ touch to his Lincoln story, Rockwell also commemorated a historic moment between two historic Civil War personages, and he celebrated an important advance in technical history – the camera. Rockwell used the device as an important, central detail for this excellent “visual snapshot” of that early photographic process, a new president-to-be, and a very subtle comment about the importance of Lincoln’s up-coming task as president.

As to the photographic process, Brady is timing the exposure while holding the lens cap he will place over the camera lens when the exposure time is up (which took awhile in those days). Lincoln is stiffly held in place by a neck-rest known as a “Brady-stand.” (The photographers painted those out of the finished photos.) The room also contains many of the props used in the photos of that period. The table, chairs, inkstand with quill, and the drapes behind Lincoln were all standard for many of those early photos.

Historically, this photo session with Brady [see Postscript below] took place a month before Lincoln’s inauguration and two months before the Civil War began. Knowing that fact, Rockwell made a very subtle reference to Lincoln’s upcoming task – a prop not shown in the actual photo. Note the Greco-Roman bust on the extreme right side of the painting – the direction in which Lincoln is facing. This bust is the subtle symbol of our democratic system of government that President Lincoln will shortly be tasked with saving.

A bright and cheerful illustration of a “humanizing” moment in Lincoln’s life before the dark and dreary war begins.

CHAPTER FOUR

Abraham Delivers the Gettysburg Address (1942)

“Abraham Delivering The Gettysburg Address” (1942)
Please note: Rockwell did NOT use Lincoln’s
last name in title of this painting.

This painting is unique for its title.

Rockwell didn’t use Lincoln’s last name in the title – just Abraham. This is a possible Biblical tie-in with the man who led his people from bondage, just as Lincoln arguably but legally did by signing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 – eleven months before delivering this address at that cemetery in Pennsylvania.

The chapter opens with the viewer again at Lincoln’s feet as he stands on the stage delivering his famous address. Lincoln appears shabbily dressed in a seemingly dusty or faded coat. He stands with a hand hanging on his lapel and wearing his spectacles as he reads his scraps of paper. These details show Lincoln’s character remains unaffected by the trappings of his office, but the responsibilities it entails have left him a trifle worn.

The man seated to the far left in the painting is the great orator Edward Everett – well dressed, coat buttoned, and holding a roll of paper that was his speech. Everett was the featured speaker at Gettysburg that day and spoke for over two hours before the President. Lincoln’s address lasted two minutes.

Rockwell again alludes to the future by making a portal or gate. This time he uses two American flags on either side and positioned ahead of Lincoln. (There was one flag near the stand that day at Gettysburg, and it was behind Lincoln.) Also, Rockwell shadowed Lincoln’s face by one of the flags – an ominous warning about Lincoln’s future in the service of his country.

EPILOGUE

Lincoln’s Legacy:

“The Spirit of Lincoln” (1955)

The Long Shadow of Lincoln (1945)

The epilogue of Rockwell’s Lincoln explores the artist’s conception of the lasting legacy left by America’s greatest president to the nation for which he died — his words. To Rockwell, Lincoln’s words make him not the man who “now belongs to the Ages,” but the man who transcends the Ages. He captured this legacy in two paintings created in the years following World War II: The Long Shadow of Lincoln (1945) and The Spirit of Lincoln (1955).

The Spirit of Lincoln is a layered allegory. Rockwell combines the image of Daniel Chester French’s Lincoln Memorial statue with the patriotic landscapes evoked in Katharine Lee Bates’s America the Beautiful. He adds his own flourishes — factories, storm clouds, and a ribbon adapted from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “that freedom shall not perish from the earth.” 

From Bates’s poem he drew the dark mountain ridge above the barn (purple mountains majesty), the rolling farmland (fruited plain), and the gleaming New York City skyline and sunlit town (alabaster cities). [5] Yet Rockwell tempers these patriotic ideals with unease: sunlight fades into storm, dark factories belch smoke, and Lincoln’s ghostly figure emerges from the clouds. With this spectral presence, Rockwell echoes Vachel Lindsay’s haunting poem, Lincoln Walks at Midnight, where Lincoln’s spirit rises restlessly to signal a troubled nation. [6] Painted in the shadow of McCarthyism and amid Cold War fears, the painting insists that freedom must be actively preserved. Lincoln appears not only as the monument to what he did, but as a spectral guardian, reminding America for what he died.

The words of Abraham Lincoln were also the inspiration for The Long Shadow of Lincoln, painted for the Saturday Evening Post in February 1945, as World War II drew to a close. Lincoln is not the focus of this painting. Sitting above and behind the disabled soldier — almost lost in the crowd — Lincoln appears in a thoughtful pose that Rockwell adapted from another famous Lincoln photograph [see the Postscript below].

Surrounding Lincoln are vignettes of postwar life: the wounded veteran, the builder, the teacher, the grieving family, the downtrodden, and the marginalized peoples of the world — all reminders of those who must not be forgotten. As the editors of the Saturday Evening Post observed, Rockwell’s painting captured the unfinished work that lay before humanity at the close of this momentous war. [bolding is mine]:

"...the hand of brotherhood extended to the downtrodden and, in the background, the less fortunate races of humankind who must not be forgotten if peace is to be anything more than an armistice. Here, in the faces and attitudes of these people, are determination and tolerance and the yearning for a better world." [7]

But this unfinished work that Rockwell so vividly portrayed in this painting is actually the visual embodiment of the ending of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, delivered eighty years earlier: 

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.[8]

Together, these two paintings form Rockwell’s epilogue on Lincoln: Words that transcend the ages, guiding Americans through war, fear, and uncertainty, and reminding us that freedom must always be protected and justice must always be done.

These paintings serve as the fitting capstone for

Lincoln by Rockwell 

✍️ Postscript:

The two Lincoln photographs by Mathew Brady (or staff) that Rockwell used in two of his paintings are shown. [9] The thoughtful pose on the right, Rockwell adapted slightly for the 1945 painting of the WW II veteran.

  

Lincoln’s First Photo in Washington, D.C.
February 24,1861 by Alexander Gardner in Brady’s studio.

Another Mathew Brady photograph
taken of Lincoln in 1861.

📚 Works Cited

[1] Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA. Retrieved November 3, 2017 from https://www.nrm.org

[2] Kershner, Jim. “Famous Rockwell painting created for Spokane bank in ’60s.” The Spokesman Review. Retrieved November 3, 2017 from http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/feb/20/banking-on-abe/  [Of note: Rockwell based several of these paintings on Carl Sandburg’s 1954 definitive biography of Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years (Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., New York City, NY).]

[3] Bialk, Elisa. “Mr. Lincoln for the Defense.” Saturday Evening Post – February 10, 1962. pp. 24-25.

[4] The Chicago Tribune Magazine, September 7, 1975. Sec.9, p. 19.

[5] Katharine Lee Bates's America the Beautiful. Retrieved December 29, 2017 from Poetry.

[6] Lindsay V. (1914) "Abraham "Lincoln Walks at Midnight". In: The Congo and Other Poems. New York, NY: Macmillan. p. 123‑126.

[7] Saturday Evening Post editors. "Commentary on Norman Rockwell’s The Long Shadow of Lincoln". Saturday Evening Post. 1945 Feb 10;217(32):32.

[8] Lincoln A. "Second Inaugural Address. Delivered March 4, 1865". In: Basler RC, ed. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Vol 8. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press; 1953. p. 332‑333.

[9] Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. Abraham Lincoln Photographs Collection. Washington, DC: Library of Congress; [accessed December 3, 2025]. Available from: https://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/about-this-collection/