Shirtless Abraham Lincoln Statue

[RadishRose]

 

[RadishRose]

The statue, “Young Lincoln,” has been flirting with federal courthouse visitors in Los Angeles for nearly 80 years.
James Lee Hansen was a local art student barely out of his teens in 1939, when a friend encouraged him to enter a contest for public art to decorate the federal building, according to a Los Angeles Times story published two years later. He was unsure if he should enter, given that he had only made one other statue in his life. Still, he submitted a small plaster model just before the contest deadline.


Amazingly, he won, earning a commission of $7,200 (about $130,000 in today’s dollars). He spent the next year carving the eight-foot statue out of limestone, using his own body as a model.
There may have been a small delay in the completion of the statue, however.

 

[Nihil]

That's hawt.

 

[Pappy]

Looks like David Bowie.

 

[retiredtraveler]

I'm from Illinois and that is just wrong!!!!

 

[treeguy64]

Pretty disgusting, as I'm seeing it. Sorry.

 

[Gary O']

Man, I don’t know what to think of that


Just nobody do one of Taft

 

[Mike]

Pretty disgusting, as I'm seeing it. Sorry.

Somebody liked it treeguy, he won the
competition and the money, nobody ever
saw Abraham Lincoln when he was young
and they were still alive and could argue
that the statue was wrong.

Mike.

 

[Keesha]

Well I’m not opposed. The placement of the right hand is interesting.

 

[Nihil]

 

[C'est Moi]

Well I’m not opposed. The placement of the right hand is interesting.

Especially for 1939!

 

[Keesha]

Especially for 1939!

I knowww.

 

[jujube]

Hubba-Hubba!! I think I would have liked History class a lot more if we had had THAT picture hanging on the classroom wall.....

 

[Linda]

I'm surprised I've never heard of this before.

 

[CeeCee]

I don’t get how it’s a shirtless Abraham Lincoln if the sculptor used his own body...the head doesn’t remind me of Lincoln that much either.

Also nothing about it says 1939.....weird!

 

[RadishRose]

I guess it's a shirtless Abe's face....It is weird, or unusual, at least. That's why I posted it. I can see Abe in the face, but it's not what I'm used to seeing, that's for sure!

 

[Aunt Bea]

When I first saw it I thought of Christopher Walken.

I read that the statue has been nicknamed Honest Abs.

 

[treeguy64]

The famous sculptor, James Lee Hansen, a man who is reported to be 94, is not the same James Lee Hansen of this Lincoln. That makes sense, as the famous sculptor has a very different style from this guy.

 

[C'est Moi]

When I first saw it I thought of Christopher Walken.

I read that the statue has been nicknamed Honest Abs.

It made me think of a young Robert Mitchum.

 

[Falcon]

He's checking to see if he dressed RIGHT or dressed LEFT.

 

[Buckeye]

Meh - that's not how I remember young Abe.

 

[RadishRose]

I think it's the haircomb that reminds of Bowie, Walken and Mitchum.

 

[RadishRose]

Meh - that's not how I remember young Abe.

The last time I saw young Abe, he looked like this-