the Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln 1868

Alonzo Chappel painted this image of Abraham Lincoln's final hours using oil on canvas, a traditional choice for history painting meant to ennoble its subject. Yet, the medium itself speaks to the industrialization that transformed American society during Lincoln’s era. Oil paint, mass-produced and readily available, fueled an explosion of artistic production. Chappel himself was one of many artists who met the demand for historical and genre scenes. The very process of painting, with its reliance on standardized materials, reflects the growing commodification of art. Consider the laborious efforts involved in extracting and refining the pigments, pressing the linseed oil, and weaving the canvas. Each of these processes depended on both skilled labor and increasingly mechanized production. The painting memorializes a president who led the Union through a brutal civil war driven by economic disparities, while at the same time reflecting those very forces through its making. By understanding the materials and production behind this work, we gain a deeper insight into the social and economic context that shaped not only the artwork but also the life and death of Abraham Lincoln.