Edwin Blashfield (1848-1936)

Edwin Blashfield's Tribute to His Wife

By Lisa N. Peters

When visiting our exhibition, In Praise of Women, one cannot help but be drawn to the large, dramatically lit painting by Edwin Blashfield situated on the far wall of the gallery.  This image is reminiscent of the work of Blashfield’s friend John Singer Sargent in the vivacity of its paint handling, in which the artist brilliantly differentiated texture and form with sumptuous brushwork.  (Blashfield wrote two articles on Sargent in 1925 and 1927*).  At the same time, its crisp contours and strong structure, in which the figure is firmly anchored within the space, forecast Blashfield’s focus on the painting of murals, for which he became known as the “dean of American mural painting,” and an individual who “raised the standard of decoration in our public buildings, making many of them a lasting beauty for our benefit and an inspiration for future generations.” (Harry Watrous, president of the National Academy of Design, quoted in Blashfield obituary, New York Times, October 13, 1936).

Exhibited simply as Portrait at the Paris International Exposition of 1889 (where it won a bronze medal), the painting is a depiction by Blashfield of his wife, Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield (d. 1918)**; it was owned at the time of the fair by her father Charles Edwin Wilbour (1833-1896), a noted American linguist, journalist, and Egyptologist.  Several aspects of the image allude to Evangeline and her family.  The sphinx on the sofa leg and the vaguely papyrus-like leaves in the couch fabric reference her father’s profession, yet Blashfield subtly asserted his own preference for the Greco-Roman tradition over that of the Egyptian in the ancient-coin sleeve clasp on Evangeline’s arm, bearing the head of a Roman woman in profile.  The loose, non-constricting dress reflects the interest of Evangeline’s mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour (d. 1914) in dress reform (Charlotte Wilbour was a noted suffragist and abolitionist, who advocated for women to gain public recognition).  Evangeline was herself impressive and accomplished, achieving more than most of the accomplished women of her day. As a writer, she pursued her own intellectual and literary interests while sharing those of her husband.  Together the couple edited a version of Vasari’s Lives of the Artists and wrote a history of Italian cities, while Evangeline published biographies and literary criticism; in 1916, she established a fund at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, still in existence today, for an annual address that “both preserves the English language in its beauty and integrity, and cautiously enriches it with such terms as grow out of the modern condition.”  Personally she was also remarkable.  Her friend, fellow writer Kate Douglas Wiggin (author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, 1903) wrote a memorial tribute to her, published in the New York Times in 1918 (Nov. 20), stating:

In the death of Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield, New York has lost a woman of very uncommon and very precious type.  Her friends were wont to say that she possessed a greater amount of knowledge about a greater number of subjects than any woman of their acquaintance.  She had an inheritance of broad culture to begin with, and years of travel and association with kindred minds had enriched her store, so that she illuminated any topic of conversation not only with her own peculiar wit, grace, and distinction, but with clear vision and fine judgment.  Those of us who knew and loved her (and we are many in number) will miss the stimulus of her brilliant mind and the charm of her gracious personality.  I, for one, can think of no woman who can precisely fill the vacant place in our admiration and affection.

Those who knew Edwin Blashfield described him in similar terms, as modest, erudite, gallant, and charming (see New York Times, Oct. 13, 1936). Although little of Evangeline’s personality emerges in Blashfield’s beautfully composed image, his striking and strong portrayal, blending portraiture with an idealized vision of womanly composure, strength, and grace, pays tribute to a partner who was his soul mate and intellectual equal.

*Edwin H. Blashfield, "John Singer Sargent--Recollections," North American Review 221 (June 1925), 641-2; Edwin H. Blashfield, "John Singer Sargent," in Commemorative Tributes . . . (New York: American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1927), 9-44.

**In 1928, Blashfield married his second wife, Grace Hall, who survived him.