DOI issue:
Nr. 176 (October, 1911)
DOI article:Hoeber, Arthur: Edwin Austin Abbey, illustrator, painter, decorator
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43447#0335
Edwin Austin Abbey
the academy picture while enhancing it by a more
learned and conscientious workmanship, and that
British magnanimity applauded the feat with en-
thusiasm. Yet, somehow, his work was far more than
this would seem to imply, for it was always full of
an infinite charm, of rare taste and admirable se-
lection, and his technical excellencies were most
unusual. He knew his trade well, did Abbey, and
he distinctly had a message to give out which, if you
will, was no less illustrative than any of his former
famous pen drawings, even though translated through
the medium of paint on canvas. Truth to tell, the
illustrator in Abbey was never obscured, well as he
learned to use his pigments, and while all pictures,
to interest, must perforce have an illustrative qual-
ity, Abbey’s were illustrative first of all. One never
thought of him painting for the pure joy of his de-
light hi color, for his departures into this field were
invariably tempered with moderation. Indeed, his
place in art is somewhat difficult rightly to define, so
various were his gifts.
Certain of his figures in the Holy Grail series in
Boston’s public library are distinctly full of spirit-
uality, and therein the artist seems nearest to for-
getting ways and means and to have indulged in
artistic flights beyond other efforts. There is in-
effable charm occasionally to face, with distinction
to attitude and delicious color, while in others again
there is only pigment, gay and brilliant if you will,
yet lacking significance and quite without the tem-
peramental quality of the colorist pure and simple.
Yet as a series the work was a most serious perform-
ance, of singular beauty and appeal, though by com-
parison with the panels by Puvis de Chavannes in
the same building, one is forced to regard them rather
as a group of easel paintings, distinct and separate,
even though they are massed together. Abbey’s
last work in a decorative way was for the embellish-
ment of the State Capitol at Harrisburg, Pennsyl-
vania, eight of which canvases he sent over some
time ago, and it may be that others are completed in
his London studio, though it is known that the com-
mission remains unfinished. In such of these as
have been seen and others which were outlined, he
was in a way more trammeled than he had been in
the work on the Holy Grail, even though there was
opportunities for a larger variation in theme and
perhaps treatment. In them he kept more to the
conventional methods of decoration as are practised
in this country. There were figures representing
Religion, Science, Law and
Art, treated allegorically
and with force, while later
were to come certain his-
torical compositions, such
as Penris Treaty with the
Indians and The Camp of
the American Army at Val-
ley Forge. We may be sure
that, had his life been
spared, Abbey would have
rendered these essentially
American themes with rare
intelligence and originality,
with discretion and no end
of charm, and it is nothing
short of an artistic calamity
that his death leaves the
commission unfinished, for
there is no worthy succes-
sor capable of carrying out
his work equally well in just
his peculiar manner.
Mr. Abbey for a brief
while was a pupil of the
schools of the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, in
Philadelphia, Iris native
city, and this institution, by
Copyright, 1908, by Edwin A. Abbey
ART (PA. STATE CAPITOL)
Copyright, 1909, by Curtis & Cameron
BY EDWIN A. ABBEY
LVIII
the academy picture while enhancing it by a more
learned and conscientious workmanship, and that
British magnanimity applauded the feat with en-
thusiasm. Yet, somehow, his work was far more than
this would seem to imply, for it was always full of
an infinite charm, of rare taste and admirable se-
lection, and his technical excellencies were most
unusual. He knew his trade well, did Abbey, and
he distinctly had a message to give out which, if you
will, was no less illustrative than any of his former
famous pen drawings, even though translated through
the medium of paint on canvas. Truth to tell, the
illustrator in Abbey was never obscured, well as he
learned to use his pigments, and while all pictures,
to interest, must perforce have an illustrative qual-
ity, Abbey’s were illustrative first of all. One never
thought of him painting for the pure joy of his de-
light hi color, for his departures into this field were
invariably tempered with moderation. Indeed, his
place in art is somewhat difficult rightly to define, so
various were his gifts.
Certain of his figures in the Holy Grail series in
Boston’s public library are distinctly full of spirit-
uality, and therein the artist seems nearest to for-
getting ways and means and to have indulged in
artistic flights beyond other efforts. There is in-
effable charm occasionally to face, with distinction
to attitude and delicious color, while in others again
there is only pigment, gay and brilliant if you will,
yet lacking significance and quite without the tem-
peramental quality of the colorist pure and simple.
Yet as a series the work was a most serious perform-
ance, of singular beauty and appeal, though by com-
parison with the panels by Puvis de Chavannes in
the same building, one is forced to regard them rather
as a group of easel paintings, distinct and separate,
even though they are massed together. Abbey’s
last work in a decorative way was for the embellish-
ment of the State Capitol at Harrisburg, Pennsyl-
vania, eight of which canvases he sent over some
time ago, and it may be that others are completed in
his London studio, though it is known that the com-
mission remains unfinished. In such of these as
have been seen and others which were outlined, he
was in a way more trammeled than he had been in
the work on the Holy Grail, even though there was
opportunities for a larger variation in theme and
perhaps treatment. In them he kept more to the
conventional methods of decoration as are practised
in this country. There were figures representing
Religion, Science, Law and
Art, treated allegorically
and with force, while later
were to come certain his-
torical compositions, such
as Penris Treaty with the
Indians and The Camp of
the American Army at Val-
ley Forge. We may be sure
that, had his life been
spared, Abbey would have
rendered these essentially
American themes with rare
intelligence and originality,
with discretion and no end
of charm, and it is nothing
short of an artistic calamity
that his death leaves the
commission unfinished, for
there is no worthy succes-
sor capable of carrying out
his work equally well in just
his peculiar manner.
Mr. Abbey for a brief
while was a pupil of the
schools of the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, in
Philadelphia, Iris native
city, and this institution, by
Copyright, 1908, by Edwin A. Abbey
ART (PA. STATE CAPITOL)
Copyright, 1909, by Curtis & Cameron
BY EDWIN A. ABBEY
LVIII