Samuel Bell Waugh (1814-1885) American, portrait of Lincoln and his family, engraved by William Sartain (1843-1924).

Frame: 25 1/4 x 32 1/4 in.

Sight: 21 x 27 3/4 in.

#1727 . 

Samuel Bell Waugh was born in 1814 in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. His father, James Waugh, was a pioneer-settler in New Wilmington where he ran the first general store. He worked in a paint shop in Pittsburgh and took painting lessons from J. R. Smith, who advertised himself as the “Scenic Artist of the Pittsburgh Theater.” He joined his brother John in Toronto in 1833, and began displaying his paintings at the exhibition of the Society of Artists and Amateurs of Toronto the next year. He went to Italy in late 1836, staying in Rome and Naples until 1842. His portrait of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen built his reputation in America, and he returned to live in Philadelphia, working as a portrait and landscape painter. His portraits of Joseph Reed Ingersoll, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. Grant garnered him particular acclaim. His entire family was involved in the arts: his daughter Ida became an award-winning figure painter, his second wife was a miniature painter, his nephew Henry was an actor, scene, and landscape painter, his son Frederick Judd was a marine painter, and his grandson Frederick Coulton was a cartoonist for the comic strip Dickie Dare. In September 1885 Waugh died while visiting his sister in Janesville, Wisconsin. 

William Sartain (November 1843-October 1924) was an American artist, known for the moody tonalism of his paintings, and interests and influences that spanned Orientalism and the Barbizon plein air approach to art. Friend to Thomas Eakins, son of artist John Sartain and brother to artist Emily Sartain, William Sartain was one of the founders of the Society of American Artists and later became president of the New York Art Club.

Location BE