Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 1942 - 1943

This drawing, by James Henry Daugherty, uses pencil to capture a moment in time. The gray tones and the cross-hatching feel like a newspaper photograph—like history caught in the act of happening. I think about Daugherty, leaning over the page. Was he trying to get it right? I mean, how do you draw something as important as Lincoln’s speech? He had to make it serious, but also kind of hopeful. Look at the way everyone’s eyes are turned upward, faces filled with a kind of awe. There are all those crosses in the background, so he’s dealing with loss, too. It's a tough job. But the mark-making and the drama remind me of the American Social Realists, like Rockwell Kent or the Mexican muralists. Daugherty is part of that world, trying to make something that ordinary people can relate to. Artists always respond to each other. We're always stealing and borrowing from the past in order to create something for the future.