Francis Carpenter

In 2006, an exhibition of portraits by Carpenter was shown at the Center for the Arts in Homer, New York. Portraits by Carpenter of several figures of local historical interest were exhibited. Loans of the works were obtained from community members, the Phillips Free Library in Homer, and the Homer Central School District.

This painting remained in the Lincoln family until 1976, later estimated at a value of about $400,000 US dollars, when it was given to the Illinois State Historical Library, now named the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. During a 2011 restoration by art conservator Barry Bauman, it was found to be a forgery. The forgery overpainted an original oil portrait of an unknown woman, painted circa the 1860s, that was modified by painting out a crucifix, adding an Abraham Lincoln brooch with other adjustments such as forging Francis Bicknell Carpenter's signature. Bauman is quoted to say, "Not only is it not Mary Lincoln, it's not Francis Carpenter."

On February 12, 1929, The New York Times reported the discovery of a new painting of Mary Lincoln. It reported that this painting was by Francis Bicknell Carpenter. This painting was reproduced in different biographies and books such as Mary Lincoln: Wife and Widow by Carl Sandburg, printed in 1932.

He was an actor, known for Treasure Island (1917), Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1917) and Jack and the Beanstalk (1917).

Francis Carpenter was born on May 9, 1910 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA as Francis Wilburn Carpenter.

Carpenter died of "dropsy" an old-fashioned term for Edema on May 23, 1900 in New York and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Homer, Cortland County, New York.

When Lincoln had the painting exhibited to the public in the East Room of the White House, Carpenter noted that the exhibition was thronged with visitors. Carpenter campaigned for Congress to purchase the painting, enlisting the help of fellow Homer native William O. Stoddard, Lincoln's private secretary. Congress did not appropriate the money. The painting remained in Carpenter's possession until 1877, when he arranged for Elizabeth Thompson to purchase it for $25,000 and donate it to Congress. A joint session of Congress was held in 1878, on Lincoln's birthday, to serve as a reception for the painting, with the artist present.

By the late 1870s, Carpenter became increasingly interested in religion and spirituality; art historian Mary Bartlett Cowdrey believed "that religious obsession somehow undermined Carpenter's work". Carpenter died in New York City—a brief obituary appearing in The New York Times misstated the title of his most famous work.

According to his memoir, Six Months at the White House, Carpenter was deeply moved by Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, calling it "an act unparalleled for moral grandeur in the history of mankind." Carpenter felt "an intense desire to do something expressive of... the great moral issue involved in the war." Carpenter, having formulated his idea for the subject of the painting and outlined its composition, fortuitously met Frederick A. Lane, a friend who recently had earned a large amount of money. Bankrolled by Lane, and through the influence of Samuel Sinclair of the New York Tribune and Representative Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, Carpenter gained Lincoln's assent to travel to Washington and work with him on the painting. Carpenter met with the President on February 6, 1864, and then began work.

On January 6, 1853 Francis married Augusta Herrick Prentiss (1831-1926). Francis and Augusta had the following children:

In 1852, Carpenter was commissioned to paint a portrait of President Millard Fillmore, a fellow upstate New Yorker born in Cayuga County. Commissions followed for portraits of Presidents Franklin Pierce and John Tyler, and other mid-19th century notables, including the clergyman Henry Ward Beecher; newspaper editor Horace Greeley; Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University; James Russell Lowell, poet; and John C. Fremont, the first Republican presidential candidate.

In 1844, after showing his father a painting of his mother that the former viewed as a success, Carpenter was allowed to go to Syracuse, New York for six months to study under Sanford Thayer. In 1848, at age 18, he was awarded a purchase prize by the American Art-Union. By the age of twenty-one, Carpenter established a studio in New York City. Carpenter was elected to the National Academy of Design as an associate member in 1852.

Francis Bicknell Carpenter (August 6, 1830 – May 23, 1900) was an American painter born in Homer, New York. Carpenter is best known for his painting First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, which is hanging in the United States Capitol. Carpenter resided with President Lincoln at the White House and in 1866 published his one volume memoir Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln. Carpenter was a descendant of the New England Rehoboth Carpenter Family.

Carpenter was born to Asaph Harmon and Almira Clark (1801-1885). He was one of nine children.