Edwin Austin Abbey, (American artist, 1852-1911) best known for his illustrations for Harpers magazine, his mural work for the Boston Public Library; murals at his native state capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; his many theatrical / literary paintings; and The Coronation of Edward VII (1902-1904, Buckingham Palace)
Edwin was born in Philadelphia, began his training as an artist under Isaac Williams, a portrait and landscape painter who had studied with John Neagle and Christian Schussele, a German-born history painter.
He moved to New York when he was 14, taking a full-time position drawing for Harper and Brothers, the publisher of a news weekly, a literary monthly, and books. Through Harper's he became friends with Francis Davis Millet and other prominent Harper illustrators such as Edwin Blashfield, Alfred Parsons.
In 1878, Harper's sent him to England to do background research for an edition of Robert Herrick's poetry. From that moment on, the pull to Great Britain and Europe would never abate and he finally settled in London in 1882 at the age of 30. When his friend Frank Millet moved to Broadway, Abbey went with him forming the nucleus of an artist colony that would included John Singer Sargent among others.
Most of his early work was in pen and ink, which he showed a strong ability for; but once he turned to oils and color, he did so in a big way .
After Edwin married, he settled in Morgan Hall
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Morgan Hall |
where he and Sargent set up a studio to begin the Boston Public Library murals.
Abbey along with his other friends from Harpers tended to lean more towards the English Pre-Raphael Brotherhood style in their artwork of genera scenes which was popular in the public. In his mural work for the Boston Public Library, a commission he received in 1890 along with John Singer Sargent and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the paintings followed more of a theatrical arrangement of characters on stage than a "recreation" of a supposed historical scene. This trend carried forward in his series on Shakespearian plays in the mid to late '90's.
Edwin Abbey was a man whose facility for illustration subverted his potential and reputation as a fine artist. A major portion of his career was spent in the fulfillment of illustration and mural commissions. He was fascinated by medieval England and English literature, and was lucky to have an equally interested public. Because of his affiliation with Harper's, Abbey's audience was large.
Abbey's career was driven more by his imagination of historic events than by his direct observation of the light and life around him, for he surely had sufficient ability to place him among the best of his contemporaries. In choosing to be an illustrator of medieval life he satisfied a personal and public interest, rather than breaking new ground as an observer or technician.
The principle monuments of his career are his murals, Quest for the Holy Grail (1890-1902, Boston Public Library), The Coronation of Edward VII (1902-1904, Buckingham Palace), and the decorations of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg which, unfinished at his death in 1911, were completed by Sargent. Two of his principal oil paintings were May Day Morning (1890, Yale University Art Gallery), his well-received first Royal Academy entry, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne (1896, Yale University Art Gallery), which was based on a scene in Shakespeare's Richard III.
(JOSEPH KEIFFER)
I have seen Sargent's drawing dated 1888 and 1889. I don't know which is correct. I know for a fact it was featured in Henry James' article: "Our Artist in Europe"; for Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume LXXIX, Page 50-66; June to November 1889 -- the magazine is reproduced at Cornell Making of America