The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abbey, Edwin Austin

ABBEY, Edwin Austin, American artist: b. Philadelphia, 3 April 1852; d. London, 1 Aug. 1911; studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; lived in New York and drew illustrations of a high order for periodicals, also painting water-colors, till 1883, when he removed to England. His two most individual qualities have been his love for English country life and scenery and for the old English poets and dramatists, both of which have resulted in notable illustrations (as of Shakespeare, Goldsmith, etc.) and paintings; and his ability as a colorist, though much of his work has been done without color. He had also deep intellectual and spiritual qualities; and all these faculties and tastes together combine in the famous panels of the ‘Search for the Holy Grail’ on the upper walls of the delivery room at the Boston Public Library He was elected member of the Royal Academy July 1898; was one of the American jurors on paintings in the Paris Exposition of 1900; and was commissioned by Edward VII to paint the coronation scene in Westminster Abbey. He married, in 1890, Miss Mary Mead of New York. Though many years resident in England Abbey never abandoned his American nationality. Consult Radcliffe, ‘Schools and Masters of Painting’ (1898), Müther, ‘History of Modern Painting’ (1896).