“UNION”
by Rich Thompson
12 X 16, acrylic, on stretched canvas
This painting is based off of a photograph taken February 5, 1865 by Alexander Gardner. The original photograph was taken in Washington, D.C., towards the end of the Civil War. The 13th Amendment was just recently passed, and President Abraham Lincoln was in the midst of reforming the Nation under his terms. Lincoln’s face is only partially on the canvas, this draws the viewer’s gaze to our 16th President’s eye. An eye that displays a weariness obtained from leading his country through a brutal and bloody civil war, and a determination drawn from his conviction in his beliefs and desire to reunite his country.