Impressionist painter, virtuoso illustrator and indefatigable traveller, George Wharton Edwards embodies the spirit of a pivotal era at the turn of the 20th century. His protean work, in which the brush dances with the pencil, sketches the delicate portrait of a world about to go through massive changes.
In his
native
Connecticut
, the young George Wharton Edwards (1859-1950) drew on everything he could find. This precocious passion, born on the barns and fences of his home town of Fair Haven, would take him to the studios of Paris and the ports of St. John’s, forging an eye that blended documentary rigour with pictorial sensitivity.
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The artists finds his eye
Young Edwards’ education took a decisive turn when he crossed the Atlantic to study in Antwerp and then Paris under the tutelage of painter Jacques-Eugène Feyen. Upon his
return to the United States
in 1884, he found a place within the vibrant artistic group of the Cos Cob Art Colony, where his Impressionist sensibilities came to fruition.
This European influence had a profound effect on his painting, which can be seen in his seascapes with misty sails (
Old Nantucket
), his harbours bathed in light (
Turkish Galleons at Constantinople
) and his ghostly villas (
Old Spanish Courtyard Montserrat
). His talent particularly appealed to the cultural elite of the 1920s and 1930s, and in 1925 he was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur for ’eminent services rendered to Art.’
An artist’s double life
In the harsh world of illustration, Edwards flourished professionally, carving a completely different style for himself, one that was precise, elegant and with a keen eye for detail. As art director at
Collier’s Magazine
from 1896 to 1903, he developed a distinctive style and, in his spare time, created advertising posters strongly influenced by the then popular Art Nouveau movement. This expertise led him to the American Bank Note Company from 1904 to 1912, where he officiated as a meticulous purveyor of… bank notes. But it was at
Harper’s Magazine
that he found the perfect balance between his talents as a storyteller and illustrator, transporting readers to distant horizons through the mediums of text and images.
Diaries of a fading world
Edwards was an insatiable traveller, crossing the Atlantic so often that he eventually lost count. From these peregrinations emerged his notebooks in which he jotted down words and drawings aplenty. World War One transformed his travels: from wide-eyed trips into a mission of remembrance: in
Vanished Towers and Chimes of Flanders
(1916) and
Vanished Halls and Cathedrals of France
(1917), each Belgian belfry sketched, each French bell carefully described, became witness to a heritage under threat.
The post-war renaissance inspired more exotic, but just as finely documented, works such as
Spain
(1926),
Rome
(1928) and the final piece,
Constantinople, Istamboul
(1930). In each of these travel notebooks, the artist demonstrated a total mastery of his artistry: colourful coats of arms, precise sketches and elegant typography transformed this itinerant medium into a full-blown art piece.
From art to legacy
This singular career was crowned at last with recognition: an associate member of the
National Academy of Design
in 1930, Edwards became an Academician in 1945, shortly before his death in 1950. Although he hasn’t accrued much fame with the public, some of his works are now housed in prestigious institutions such as the Hermitage Museum, the Orsay Museum, the
Bruce Museum
and San Francisco’s Fine Arts Museum, telling the story of a multidisciplinary artist who knew how to document a world about to enter the throes of metamorphosis.