October 31, 1896~ American singer and actress Ethel Waters born

Portrait of Ethel Waters by Luigi Lucioni

1939 / Oil on canvas / 32”x25” / Huntsville Museum of Art, Alabama

[There are three embedded links above]

Luigi Lucioni and his painting of Ethel Waters

Previous October 31 posts:

Autumn~ October 31

Katsushika Hokusai: Born October 31(?), 1760

Artist Birthday Quiz for 10/31~

February 12, 1809: Abraham Lincoln Is Born in Hodgenville, KY

railsplitter“Lincoln the Railsplitter” by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) 84.5” by 44.5” Oil on canvas
Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections. ©NR Family Agency.

In 1962, Lincoln First Federal Savings & Loan Assn in WA commissioned this painting for the lobby of their headquarters in Spokane. Rockwell completed it in 1965 and it was unveiled on November 4th of that year. After the bank merged with Washington Mutual Savings Bank, the painting was moved to Seattle, no longer on public display; in the early 1990s it was sold to Texas businessman H. Ross Perot. In 2006, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, purchased it in a sale at Christie’s Auction House, and “Lincoln the Railsplitter” was once again available to the public.

“Artworks of Lincoln were produced for many reasons—for news, politics, sale, and commemoration—and in a variety of media, such as prints, paintings, sculptures, and photographs.”
http://www.civilwarinart.org/exhibits/show/lincoln/introduction/picturing-lincoln

“Scholars estimate that Lincoln sat for 33 photographers and 127 portraits in his lifetime…”
http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1876750_1840177,00.html

“The statue of President Abraham Lincoln [in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol] depicts him with a serious, contemplative expression. Sculpted by the first female artist commissioned to create a work of art for the United States government.”
https://www.aoc.gov/art/other-statues/abraham-lincoln-statue

“Iconic Abraham Lincoln portraits”
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/iconic-abraham-lincoln-portraits/

Previous February 12 posts:

February 12~ African-American visual artists

Artist Birthday Quiz for 2/12~

Anna Sewell: Born March 30, 1820

sewellWhile in her fifties Sewell first devised the idea to write her own book about horses. Initially intended, as she wrote in her diary, to be an instructional work to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses little did she know it would become a best-seller. Bustling Victorian London’s society, transportation and industry was dependent on horse power, but there were also emerging vegetarian and animal anti-cruelty groups. Through the trials and tribulations of Black Beauty we see a cross-section of the working conditions and quality of life for horses.
FROM http://www.online-literature.com/anna-sewell/
Black Beauty is widely credited with helping to change the way horses were cared for. There is little doubt that the book helped hasten the abolishment of the “bearing rein” — a strap used to pull a horse’s head in toward its chest to force the appearance of a noticeable arch of the neck. Black Beauty also placed a harsh spotlight on the practice of “docking” or cutting short a horses tail, largely for the sake of appearances — a practice that is still widely debated.
FROM  How ‘Black Beauty’ Changed The Way We See Horses
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/02/163971063/how-black-beauty-changed-the-way-we-see-horses
silentmovie
Read Black Beauty online or download the free ebook:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/271
Free downloads of Black Beauty in Mp3 (audiobook) format.
http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/125/black-beauty/