Most authentic Lincoln bust ever?

[civilwarincolor]

I saw this and was just blown away. I thought about starting a thread in the photography forum, but this is NOT a photograph, this is one of the most realistic sculptures I have ever seen. Have a look:

Text from an article on this site. The artists personal site with more Lincoln images is here.

Kyoto-based artist Kazuhiro Tsuji has been shocking people with his incredibly lifelike sculptures of famous people. His perfect bust of Abraham Lincoln looks so real you'd swear he traveled back to 1865 to capture a color photograph.

Recreating Abraham Lincoln is only fitting for Tsuji, and brings his interesting story full-circle. As a kid, he ran across an issue of Fangoria magazine featuring the makeup skills of Dick Smith. Here was detailed the recent work Smith had done transforming Hal Holbrook into Lincoln for a 1976 TV mini series (Holbrook would win an Emmy for his role). Tsuji was so inspired, he remembers: "I took a life cast of myself and attempted to transform myself into Lincoln, which was all the more difficult considering I'm Japanese." After completing his very convincing transformation he sent photos to Dick Smith who immediately replied. Soon the two were working together, and in the years that followed Tsuji put his skills to work on films like Men in Black and Planet of the Apes, transforming actors into bizarre and yet incredibly believable characters (you'll find images of his movie work here).
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[Littlestown]

Wow, that is incredible! An amazing artist.

 

[Cilla]

Wow, now that's really something special.

 

[AndyHall]

That's wonderful. The technology is there now to do hyper-realistic reconstructions (with a little education guesswork thrown in) of all sorts of historical figures. Here's an archer from Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, sunk in 1545:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-22907996

And a 14th century Archbishop of Canterbury:

https://saesferd.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/simon-of-sudbury/

 

[civilwarincolor]

That's wonderful. The technology is there now to do hyper-realistic reconstructions (with a little education guesswork thrown in) of all sorts of historical figures. Here's an archer from Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, sunk in 1545:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-22907996

And a 14th century Archbishop of Canterbury:

https://saesferd.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/simon-of-sudbury/

I have always been impressed by those that did reconstructions, this though I think goes beyond that. It is more of an artists rendering (especially since the image is several times life size if you look at the other images in the article). I would love to see this in person. Hopefully it will get an exhibit display somewhere.

 

[alexjack]

Fantastic work!

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Dunno about authentic, but I'd definitely say lifelike. I half-expected to see him blink!

 

[JerseyBart]

...and that you for the nightmares.
Seriously though...anazing work.

 

[bankerpapaw]

Great work!!!

 

[johnnydef47]

Would love to see one of Longstreet

 

[civilwarincolor]

Dunno about authentic, but I'd definitely say lifelike. I half-expected to see him blink!

Well I put authentic in the title line to grab peoples attention, when you think of a bust of someone you think something in marble or other stone. I'm not sure what this is made of (latex?) but it just looks so realistic (and as you said, lifelike).

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

That's so lifelike it's scary.

 

[TerryB]

No gray hair?

 

[civilwarincolor]

Would love to see one of Longstreet

I think it would be terrific to see a series of top Union/Confederate leaders (Jefferson Davis, R. E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, P.G.T. Beauregard, Grant, Mead, McClellan, Burnside, etc.). According to the article though, the artist is Japanese and his interest in Lincoln was from seeing a makeup artists rendering of Hal Holbrook.

Hopefully he will do more though!

 

[civilwarincolor]

No gray hair?

Well there is a little bit around the temples, but if you look at contemporary paintings of him there was not much gray hair in those portraits.

 

[Rebel_Giratina]

That is a little too creepy for comfort.

Can I sleep in one of the admins' beds tonight?

 

[Specster]

Dunno about authentic, but I'd definitely say lifelike. I half-expected to see him blink!

I somewhat agree with you more than the previous posters. Yes, it looks lifelike, but is it Lincoln or just a real accurate portrays of a human face? I think, perhaps, that is getting lost in the presentation of the picture.

 

[Specster]

I believe it was the History Channel that did a great series on "Death Masks". It was fairly routine for a dignitary to have his face cast in something like plaster of Paris when they died. This had been a custom for so long that there were death masks of Roman Emperors and plenty in between 1 AD and today. The focused upon Lincolns, from what I recall he had a serious degenerative disease, the effects of which were pronounced on his face and caught on his death mask.

If you are looking for accurate, 3D representations of Abe at the time of his death, the death mask would be a great starting place. Again, the cited artist work looks like a living Lincoln. I just dont believe, 100% that is what Abe looked like when he died. I think it is common knowledge that presidents age very fast due to the stress of the position. I dont think, perhaps excluding Washington, that a US president was under more stress than Abe. Compound this with the disease, which was projected to do him in fairly quickly, I do not totally trust that this is the most accurate picture we have of the man at the time of his death.

Lastly, we were going through many transitions in painting artistic style: realism, romanticism, impressionism, classical etc....I am not an artist but I think what I am saying is quite clear

 

[civilwarincolor]

...The focused upon Lincolns, from what I recall he had a serious degenerative disease, the effects of which were pronounced on his face and caught on his death mask.

...I dont think, perhaps excluding Washington, that a US president was under more stress than Abe. Compound this with the disease, which was projected to do him in fairly quickly, I do not totally trust that this is the most accurate picture we have of the man at the time of his death.

Lastly, we were going through many transitions in painting artistic style: realism, romanticism, impressionism, classical etc....I am not an artist but I think what I am saying is quite clear

I agree with your comment on more realistic art work.

In regards to Lincoln "had a serious degenerative disease" I believe you are referring to "Marfan Syndrome". There was a special on History Channel 1-2 years ago that used DNA from Lincoln to essentially disprove this theory. The Wikipedia page for Marfan's here has this quote:

"Abraham Lincoln was once thought to have had the disease, but that view has been discounted"​

 

[Specster]

I agree with your comment on more realistic art work.

In regards to Lincoln "had a serious degenerative disease" I believe you are referring to "Marfan Syndrome". There was a special on History Channel 1-2 years ago that used DNA from Lincoln to essentially disprove this theory. The Wikipedia page for Marfan's here has this quote:

"Abraham Lincoln was once thought to have had the disease, but that view has been discounted"​

I have not researched this in detail but I still think many doctors felt he had a serious, eventually fatal disease which could be passed on to his children and was. I should have read more b4 I Posted this. Yet, I feel my basic facts are correct. u r correct that many thought it was Marfans but now the consensus is that he had MENS2B cancer.....