VOA慢速英语--画家用绘画捕捉林肯遇刺时刻

Painting Captures Moments after Lincoln's Assassination¹ 画家用绘画捕捉林肯遇刺时刻

A rare painting showing the moments after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated² has been cleaned, repaired and restored.

The oil painting is named “Lincoln Borne by Loving Hands.”

German artist Carl Bersch witnessed the scene outside Ford's Theatre the night of April 14, 1865. As a group of men carried Lincoln out of the theater, Bersch drew the scene as he sat on a porch near the theater.

Bersch later developed the drawing into his painting.

It is the only known painting by an eyewitness³ that captures the historic evening.

Lincoln was shot while watching a play at the theater. The wounded president was carried to the Petersen boarding house across the street. He died the following morning.

The painting looks back at the moment Lincoln was carried across the street.

Lincoln’s beard is visible. A woman's face shows her horror. Around her a crowd has gathered, their faces lit by the glow of a street light. American flags and red, white and blue banners hang from balconies and the street light poles. A man and a child look out an upstairs window.

The painting is owned by the U.S. National Park Service. It has a large collection of artwork and artifacts of historic and cultural importance.

Laura Anderson is the museum curator with the National Park Service at Ford’s Theatre. She said Bersch was initially⁴ sketching⁵ a parade on the street that night, celebrating the end of the American Civil War. But his attention was soon drawn⁶ to the dramatic event unfolding before his eyes.

Anderson said Bersch “knew immediately it was a momentous⁷ scene that he was witnessing as he saw the president carried out onto the street."

The painting is more than 150 years old. The painting has undergone several restorations. Some restorations did not properly clean, repair and restore the painting.

The Park Service asked David Olin to clean, repair and restore the painting. Olin is a conservator. A conservator is a person who protects and cares for artwork. He and his team spent about six months restoring the painting.

The first phase was to clean the painting. The restorers removed the previous layers without damaging the original content.

The second phase was doing structural⁸ repair. The third phase involved painting preexisting areas that were damaged or aged⁹.

“So the objective, once the painting is cleaned and stabilized¹⁰, is to bring back the artist's intent,” Olin said.

In almost 30 years of doing art conservation, “I have never seen a rendering¹¹ of the event that took place outside of Ford's Theatre, recalling and capturing the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination," said Olin. "So to me, it's a very unique painting.”

Olin says he was excited "by the way that Carl Bersch captured not only Lincoln being carried out, but Lincoln is a very small part of the overall design."

"I think the artist has really captured what was going on ... the impact it had on the nation, with the activity in the background and the very dark, strong shadows," he explained.

Tamara Luzeckyj, one of the team members who worked on the painting, was pleased with the final result.

“We’ve removed everything that's been obscuring that [painting] over the past hundred-something years,” she said.

The artwork now hangs in the Ford’s Theatre museum, near the site where President Lincoln was assassinated.

Anderson hopes that when visitors see the painting, they will think about what happened that night at Ford's Theatre.

Anderson said: "It was a momentous occasion. It was the first time a president was assassinated; there was a peaceful transfer of power, and it was a very sad event and it was clearly felt by the artist who painted this painting.”

Many regard Lincoln as one of America’s greatest and most-liked presidents.

Words in This Story

assassination – n. the act of killing¹² someone, such as a famous or important person usually for political reasons

porch – n. a structure attached to the entrance of a building that has a roof and that may or may not have walls

horror – n. a very strong feeling of fear, dread¹³ and shock

glow – n. a soft and steady light

banners – n. large strips of cloth with a design, picture or writing on it

balconies – n. raised platforms that are connected to the side of a building and surrounded by a low wall or railing

artifacts – n. simple objects, such as tools or weapons, that were made by people in the past

curator – n. a person who is in charge of the things in a museum

restoration – n. the act or process of returning something to its original condition by repairing it and cleaning it

rendering – n. a description, explanation or translation

1 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

2 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

3 eyewitness   

n.目击者，见证人

参考例句：

• The police questioned several eyewitness to the murder.警察询问了谋杀案的几位目击者。
• He was the only eyewitness of the robbery.他是那起抢劫案的唯一目击者。

4 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

5 sketching   

n.草图

参考例句：

• They are sketching out proposals for a new road. 他们正在草拟修建新路的计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• "Imagination is busy sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. “飞舞驰骋的想象描绘出一幅幅玫瑰色欢乐的场景。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

6 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

7 momentous   

adj.重要的，重大的

参考例句：

• I am deeply honoured to be invited to this momentous occasion.能应邀出席如此重要的场合，我深感荣幸。
• The momentous news was that war had begun.重大的新闻是战争已经开始。

8 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

9 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

10 stabilized   

v.（使）稳定， （使）稳固( stabilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The patient's condition stabilized. 患者的病情稳定下来。
• His blood pressure has stabilized. 他的血压已经稳定下来了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。