Writing for the Wall Street Journal’s weekly column, “Masterpiece: Anatomy of a Classic,” Harold Holzer, the Jonathan F. Fanton Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, recounts the little-known history of the Abraham Lincoln statue that stands inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, and its sculptor Vinnie Ream.
“Like a silent sentinel, the statue of Abraham Lincoln has long loomed over dignitaries who have lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda, among them presidents, members of Congress and even the Capitol Police officers shot to death defending the building in 1998,” Holzer begins. “Then, on Jan. 6, young artist Vinnie Ream’s 7-foot-tall marble sculpture appeared in the background as a mob swarmed the Rotunda.”
Holzer goes on to tell the unlikely story of the young sculptor’s achievement and the remarkable longevity—despite its detractors—of the statue she unveiled in 1871, which Holzer calls “an uncannily successful marriage of realism and classicism.”
