Striking color 13 x 16 chromolithographic oval portrait of President Abraham Lincoln, showing him in a distinguished head-and-shoulders pose, produced by E. C. Middleton of Cincinnati in 1864. Attractively displayed in an ornate period frame to an overall size of 19 x 21.75. A small tear to Lincoln’s chest and the back of the frame loose, otherwise fine condition. The publisher used an innovative lithography process that used oil-based inks on paper backed by canvas to produce very high quality, vibrant images that resembled actual oil paintings. Middleton based the portrait on a photograph taken by Anthony Berger at Mathew Brady’s Washington studio on February 9, 1864. One of these prints was sent to President Lincoln himself, who offered his critique: ‘Your picture...is, in the main, very good. From a line across immediately above the eye-brows, downward it appears to me perfect. Above such a line I think it is not so good—that is, while it gives perhaps a better fore-head, it is not quite true to the original.’ A stunning portrait of the president produced during his lifetime.
