In the painting, a contemplative Lincoln is observed alone, leaning forward in a chair, with his elbow on his knee and his head resting on his hand.

[1] Lincoln's pose was inspired by Healy's 1868 painting, The Peacemakers, which depicts Lincoln and others in an historic 1865 strategy session of the Union high command, during the final days of the American Civil War.

[3] On March 3, 1869, an act of Congress authorized the commission of a portrait of Lincoln to hang in the White House.

However, Ulysses S. Grant, then the president of the United States selected a more formal, high art portrait painted by William F. Cogswell.

[6] Though Richard Nixon had moved the portrait from the State Dining Room, replacing it with Cropsey's View of the Palisades on the Hudson, Gerald Ford had the portrait moved back to its longstanding placement.