The Young Lincoln

The Young Lincoln
The statue in 2022
ArtistJames Lee Hansen
Year1941
Dimensions240 cm (8 ft)
LocationLos Angeles, California, U.S.

The Young Lincoln is a statue of Abraham Lincoln created by James Lee Hansen in 1941, installed in Los Angeles' Spring Street Courthouse, in the U.S. state of California.[1][2][3]

The statue exemplifies public art of the New Deal,[4] including its depiction of Lincoln in his youth, a popular topic of the era.[5] It was built as a result of Hansen winning a 1939 Federal Works Agency art contest, and it was the first large sculpture he had ever completed.[6] In creating the statue, Hansen "developed his own interpretation of Lincoln, portraying him as a young man standing barefoot and shirtless - a man of deep sentiment and understanding."[7]

In 2019, it gained renewed attention on Twitter, wherein users nicknamed the statue "Hot Lincoln."[1][2][3][8]

  1. ^ a b "'Hot Lincoln' Stands in Long Line of Attractive Presidential Sculpture". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
  2. ^ a b "People Are Having a Hard Time Keeping It Together Thanks to This Chiseled Abraham Lincoln Statue". Time. Archived from the original on 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
  3. ^ a b "'Honest Abs': The story behind that shirtless Lincoln statue flirting with the Internet". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
  4. ^ Phillips, Susan A. (2012-06-29). Operation Fly Trap: L. A. Gangs, Drugs, and the Law. University of Chicago Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-226-66767-6.
  5. ^ Cassidy, Donna (2005). Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation. UPNE. ISBN 978-1-58465-446-9.
  6. ^ "Young Lincoln Statue (and Law Statue)". Los Angeles Explorers Guild. 2022-01-05. Retrieved 2022-11-28.
  7. ^ "Sculpture Plaque". Living New Deal. Retrieved 2022-11-28.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).