Francis Bicknell Carpenter

1830-1900

American (Washington, DC)

Francis Bicknell Carpenter was born on August 6, 1830 in Homer, New York. He received his first training as an artist in 1844 when he studied with Sanford Thayer of Syracuse, New York. In 1851 he moved to New York City, where he was given his first important commission, a full-length portrait of the banker David Leavitt. Shortly thereafter he traveled to Washington, D.C., to paint President Millard Fillmore. This marked the beginning of great success for Carpenter in DC. He painted President Franklin Pierce shortly after his inauguration and later produced portraits of several senators.

His most famous effort, The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, 1864, was exhibited in several cities in the United States before being placed on view in the House wing of the Capitol in 1878 (the painting now hangs in the west stairwell of the Senate wing). Carpenter had created the large historical piece in the White House, under the watchful eye of President Lincoln, and published his reminiscences of this time in a book titled Six Months in the White House. The account of life with the President was sufficiently popular to be reprinted sixteen times between 1866 and 1883. The artist painted several other images of Lincoln (some posthumous), and Lincoln with his family and colleagues during the 1860s.