Photo of Volk working on a Lincoln Bust (date unknown)
Volk and Lincoln first met in 1858 at one of the Lincoln- Douglas debates. It was there that Volk asked Lincoln if he would pose for him. Lincoln agreed to model, but at a later date, as he was then too busy.
Lincoln did keep his word to Volk two years later. Lincoln was engaged in a lawsuit in Chicago and during a break in the trial he contacted Volk and began numerous sittings. Volk told Lincoln he "desired to represent the breast and brawny shoulders as nature presented them" and asked his subject to strip to the waist. Lincoln obligingly removed his coast, waistcoat, shirt, tie, and collar and then pulled his undershirt to the waist tying the sleeves behind him and stood without a murmur while the artist worked.
At a later date Volk traveled to Lincoln's home in Springfield, IL to cast Lincoln's hands. The cast of his right hand shows excessive swelling as a result of handshaking on the campaign trail. These hand casts were later used for the seated Lincoln sculpted by Daniel Chester French for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D. C.
The life mask done in Chicago at the time of the original sittings is one of only two that were ever created of Lincoln. This depiction is a popular image because it shows a pre-presidential Lincoln before the stresses of office aged his features. It provided the template for much of Volk's statuary of Lincoln over the next several decades. The original mask is owned by the Bershire Museum in Pittsfield, and was a gift of the late Zenas Crane of Dalton who obtained it from Volk's son, Stephen Douglas Volk in 1900.  Photo of the life mask courtesy of the Berkshire Museum.
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