Lewis Payne, One of Lincoln's Assassination Conspirators, Washington Navy Yard
April 1865
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 6 13/16 × 5 1/8 in. (17.3 × 13 cm) Sheet: 6 13/16 × 5 1/8 in. (17.3 × 13 cm) Primary mount: 10 1/16 in. × 8 in. (25.5 × 20.3 cm) Secondary mount: 12 × 10 in. (30.5 × 25.4 cm) Frame (approx): 17 x 14 in.
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2019
Accession Number
2019.497
Tags
Art Historical Context
In April 1865, just days after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April14, photographer Alexander Gardner captured this stark portrait of Lewis Payne (also known as Lewis Powell), one of the key conspirators in the plot. Taken at the Washington Navy Yard Payne was held awaiting trial and execution, the image shows the young man seated and shackled, his expression calm yet defiant amid the national trauma of the Civil War's end. Gardner, a Scottish-born pioneer in American photography who had worked with Mathew Brady, documented the war's brutal realities, making this print a poignant...
About the Artist
Alexander Gardner
Alexander Gardner was born on 17 October 1821 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and came of age in a culture shaped by radical social thought. Influenced by the cooperative ideals of Robert Owen, Gardner initially apprenticed as a jeweler and harbored dreams of founding a utopian community in America. His encounter with photography changed the course of his life. After seeing Mathew Brady's cele...