[Butler Portrait]

Abstract

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln with his arms crossed."This pose [was] made for the portrait painter, John Henry Brown, noted for his miniatures on ivory. Brown arrived in Springfield on August 12 with a commission from Judge John M. Read of Philadelphia to paint a good-looking miniature of Lincoln 'whether or not the subject justified it!' Brown went with Lincoln to Butler's daguerreotype studio, where Butler took six ambrotypes, of which this pose and one other survive.