|
Francis Bicknell Carpenter was born north of the village of Homer on August 6,
1830. He received part of his education at the Academy on the Green, which was
the precursor to the present Homer Central School. Through the support of a
benefactor, Paris Barber of Homer, young Frank Carpenter, at the age of fifteen, set
up his first studio in Homer and started doing portraits in oil of local people. The
Homer School District, since 1854, has been the proud owner of what is known as
Carpenter’s “Trustee Paintings,” some eleven portraits of members of the early
trustees and administration of the Academy first chartered by the State of New York
in 1819.
Carpenter went on to paint just about everyone who made the news in pre-Civil War
America. Four U.S. Presidents sat for him, including Abraham Lincoln. His greatest
artistic accomplishment was the nine foot by fourteen foot oil painting on canvas
entitled “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet,”
which now hangs in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. This painting by
“the most important artist ever to portray Abraham Lincoln” might not have been
accepted by the government of the U.S. had it not been for behind-the-scenes efforts
of his good friend from Homer, William O. Stoddard.
Carpenter wrote a book, Six Months in the White House, which is still cited by
Lincoln scholars. By paint and print, Carpenter contributed to America’s
understanding of Lincoln, the man and the war president. Carpenter died May 23,
1900, and is buried in the Glenwood Cemetery in Homer that was designed by his
friend and benefactor, Paris Barber.
|
|
