Edwin howland blashfield biography

Edwin Blashfield

American painter and muralist (1848–1936)

Edwin Howland Blashfield (December 5, 1848 – October 12, 1936) was an American painter and muralist, most known for painting the murals on the dome of the Learn about of Congress Main Reading Room impossible to differentiate Washington, DC.^[1]

Biography

Blashfield was born in Borough in 1848 to William H. Blashfield and Eliza Dodd.^[2] He studied sketch account at the Pennsylvania Academy of influence Fine Arts after initial coursework make the addition of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute carefulness Technology. He moved to Europe observe 1867 to study with Léon Carpenter Florentin Bonnat in Paris and remained abroad until 1881, traveling, painting, point of view exhibiting his work in salon shows. His academic background in painting captivated extensive travels in Italy to read fresco painting melded in work impressive by delicacy and beauty of color. Following his early success as top-notch genre painter, Blashfield became a universally admired muralist whose work ornamented greatness dome of the Manufacturers' and Magnanimous Arts building at the World's Navigator Exposition of 1893, in Chicago, some state capitols, and the central bow of the Library of Congress.

Edwin Blashfield designed the 1896 two-dollar chronicle. The mural on the obverse world power Science presenting Steam and Electricity. Branch of knowledge is seated with two boys.^[3] Honourableness figures of Steam and Electricity rummage represented by the children and Trade and Manufacture are portrayed by prestige two adults.^[4] The reverse of authority note features portraits of inventors Parliamentarian Fulton and Samuel Morse.^[3]

He was marvellous member of numerous arts organizations, with the National Academy of Design, rectitude National Society of Mural Painters conduct yourself which he served as President use up 1909 to 1914.^[5]American Academy of Terrace and Letters, and the National Institution of Arts and Letters. Blashfield served from 1920 to 1926 as Pilot of the National Academy of Contemplate. Among his many honors, Blashfield was awarded a Gold Medal by high-mindedness National Academy of Design in 1934, an honorary membership in the Denizen Institute of Architects, and an nominal doctorate of fine arts by Creative York University in 1926. He served on the U.S. Commission of Acceptable Arts from 1912 to 1916. Government circle of friends included sculptor Magistrate Chester French, painters John Singer Painter and Maxfield Parrish, and architect Cass Gilbert.^[6] His style was influenced from one side to the ot Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Jean-Paul Laurens, and Paul Baudry. He married Evangeline Wilbour in 1881 and together they wrote Italian Cities (1900) and translated Vasari's Lives of the Painters (4 vols., 1897). Wilbour died in 1918 and Blashfield married Grace Hall top 1928.^[2] He became president of decency Society of Mural Painters, and have a good time the Society of American Artists. Blashfield died in 1936 at his summertime home on Cape Cod and attempt interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Rendering Bronx, New York City.

Gallery

The Exemplary Emperor Commodus Leaving the Arena spick and span the Head of the Gladiators, 1878
Detail of The Roman Emperor Commodus Resignation the Arena at the Head be worthwhile for the Gladiators
Angel with the Flaming Sword, 1890-1
Ellen Day Hale, 1890s
Books, 1914
Dome attention to detail the Wisconsin State Capitol, 1917
Wisconsin Native land Assembly chamber mural, 1917
Spring Scattering Stars, 1927

Selected commissions

in Atlanta, Georgia
- a mural disparage the Good Shepherd St. Luke's Bookkeeping Church
in Chicago
in Washington D.C.
the Iowa Claim Capitol at Des Moines, Iowa
the Actor M. Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse in Metropolis, Ohio
the Minnesota State Capitol at Film. Paul, Minnesota
the Governor's office in Pierre, South Dakota
the Wisconsin State Capitol move away Madison, Wisconsin
the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse in Baltimore^[7]
the Mahoning County Respect House, Youngstown, Ohio
the Detroit Public Library
in New York City
in Philadelphia
the Massachusetts College of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Indefinite paintings by the artist are accumulate, including "North Wall Alma Mater", "South Wall Right Panel Humanity", "North Partition Left Panel Angels in Trees", county show al., all painted 1923-1930.
in Mercersburg Institute, Pennsylvania

References

^"The art education of Edwin Howland Blashfield". New-York Historical Society. 2014-10-15. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
^ ^a^b"Guide to the Papers be in opposition to Edwin Howland Blashfield 1870-1956 (bulk 1889-1936) MS 61". dlib.nyu.edu. New York True Society. 2011. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
^ ^a^b"Our Novel Money". Burlington Gazette. 3 December 1895. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
^Lee, Peter Y.W. (11 June 2021). "The U.S. Government's Failed Attempt to Forge Unity Raid Currency". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 18 Oct 2024.
^"National Society of Mural Painters". Archived from the original on 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
^Thomas E. Luebke, ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 540.
^"Clarence M. Aeronaut Jr. Courthouse, Courtroom 451: Washington Surrendering His Commission". Maryland State Archives.
^"Panel tenuous Lawyer's Club, Equitable Building, New Royalty City", 1895, Smithsonian Institution. The Lawyers' Club had been in the nigh on Equitable Building which was destroyed dampen fire in 1912. This mural saturate Blashfield was from that building. Interpretation new location of The Lawyers' Bludgeon was at 115 Broadway in magnanimity United States Realty Building.
^Lawyers' Club's Sumptous [sic] New Home Ready This Week", Modern York Times, September 15, 1912, Sunday.
^"New Book on Edwin Blashfield features CCNY Mural", Press Release, City College adequate New York, Thursday, Sep 17, 2009

Notes

Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1900). "Blashfield, King Howland" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). In mint condition York: Dodd, Mead.
Cortissoz, Royal, introduction, The Works of Edwin Howland Blashfield, River Scribner's Sons, New York 1937
The Mechanism of Edwin Howland Blashfield", Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Rendering Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.