An American icon unveiled

There are a number of ways to make your first acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln at the Butler Institute of American Art.
There are no bad ways.
You can enter the front of museum and make a right turn into the Dennison Gallery, where the north wall is dominated by Alfred Leslie's "Americans: Youngstown, Ohio," painted in 1978, and the southwest corner is taken up by George Segal's preliminary work-up of "The Steelmakers," circa 1980.
It sets a proper tone for meeting the 16th president of the United States, a man of humble beginnings, who waits, larger than life, two galleries away.
Or you could enter from the rear of the museum and take the stairs to the second floor of Beecher Court where you can first appreciate four centuries of American portraiture -- subjects humble and exalted alike -- before meeting Mr. Lincoln.
Or you could simply stride from either entrance of the building to the center of Beecher Court, make a quick turn to the north, and look straight at Norman Rockwell's life-size rendition of "Lincoln the Railsplitter," painted in 1965 and acquired by the Butler at an auction in New York City in November.
Any way you look at it, the painting is spectacular.
When acquisition of the painting was announced by Butler Director Lou Zona, he noted that the Butler is the nation's first museum of American art. "If ever a painting belonged in the collection of the Butler, this is the one. & quot;
That was an understatement.
An underexposed picture
Rockwell painted the railsplitter on a commission from the Lincoln First Federal Savings and Loan of Spokane for an advertisement. But it never received the widespread reproduction and commercialization of some of Rockwell's work. Until the auction, the original was in the private collection of billionaire Ross Perot. It was bought for 1.6 million.
Friday night, to the sound of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," Rockwell's portrait of Lincoln was unveiled to an appreciative small audience.
Saturday afternoon, the museum was open to the public, and hundreds more were able to get their first look at Lincoln. The museum will be open from noon to 4 p.m. today for those still wanting to get a first-weekend look. The Butler is closed Mondays.
In the coming years, Mahoning Valley residents and visitors to Butler from around the world will be able to see and appreciate the Lincoln portrait and galleries filled with other masterpieces that capture in art the people, spirit and essence of America.