Stockbridge, MA, May 8 (BUS): An art gallery featuring multimedia works and antiques inspired by Washington’s iconic Lincoln statue opened Saturday to celebrate the centenary of the memorial’s founding.
The museum is located in Stockbridge, the same small Massachusetts town where the Lincoln Memorial Studio of French sculptor Daniel Chester, Chesterwood, is located.
The museum and studio worked together on the illustrated Lincoln Memorial Gallery, according to the Associated Press.
At least eight works have appeared by the famous American painter Norman Rockwell of the Civil War era. The exhibition includes a pair of these pieces, including the “Lincoln Defense” illustration showing the former president in his early years as a lawyer.
Over 50 works of multimedia are on display, including original paintings, illustrations, photos, and artifacts inspired by the statue that was dedicated in May 1922.
“Norman Rockwell admired President Lincoln very much,” said Laurie Norton Moffat, president and CEO of the Norman Rockwell Museum. “He considered him just a towering American and admired his ability to unite the country at such a difficult time, incorporating him into a number of his paintings.”
The gallery also includes a 1975 Rockwell oil painting of famed Civil War photographer Matthew Brady taking a seated portrait of Lincoln. Moffat said the exhibition features a print because the original is in a private collection.
The exhibition will run in Stockbridge until September 5, before moving to the Concorde Museum from September 22 until February 26. Moffat said plans to show it elsewhere are still in the works.