French designed the statue around overhead light from a skylight that would drop shadows under Lincoln's brow, nose, and chin. The skylight was cut, and the brightest light in the room bounced up from the marble floor, flipping the shadows and flattening the face into what French called a disaster. He and architect Henry Bacon brought in General Electric engineers, who tested lighting rigs on the original plaster model, and the corrected floodlights were finally installed in 1929 -- seven years after the memorial opened and two years before French died.
French designed the statue around overhead light from a skylight that would drop shadows under Lincoln's brow, nose, and chin. The skylight was cut, and the brightest light in the room bounced up from the marble floor, flipping the shadows and flattening the face into what French called a disaster. He and architect Henry Bacon brought in General Electric engineers, who tested lighting rigs on the original plaster model, and the corrected floodlights were finally installed in 1929 -- seven years after the memorial opened and two years before French died.
SOURCE: https://x.com/anishmoonka/status/2073708469945848164 SOURCE (mirror): https://xcancel.com/anishmoonka/status/2073708469945848164
Really great lesson captured here, not just about statues.
Fun trivia, if you look at the statue from the side, the back of Abes head makes a profile of Robert E Lee.
They cannot ruin the Lincoln Memorila.
Getting the hair to look right is a major challenge with any sculpture...
Very interesting. Thank you.