The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-21
CAREER OF E. A. ABBEY
AMERICAN ARTIST WHO Is PAINTING
KING EDWARDS CORONATION.
chant fcr Correct Detail-Inter-
view with King Oscar.
Washington Times.


in England found Edwin A. Abbey engaged
in painting the coronation picture which
King Edward had ordered. After examin-
ing the canvas the visitor said:
Abbey. it is a great work and great
chance; but tell me. how did you get it?'
The painters reply was laconic:
Through my grandfather"
The friend gasped his establishment; then
laughingly added:
"And L see by the newspapers that you
are also to decorate the new Capitol OF
Pennsylvania, a work that will be monu-
mental and take years of your life. Did
your grandfather get you this commission,
too?'
IF do the work, he will be the cause"
was Mr. Abbeys answer.
Roswell Abbey, grandfather of the artist
who hopes to have the coronation painting
completed by next spring, was merchant,
an inventor of type foundry appliances.
an adept in almost every line of commerce,
and, for his own pleasure and recreation,
a worker in water colors. He was of de-
cided artistic temperament, and used to
spend hours before his easel.
Roswell Abbey's son, William NJ Abbey,
was a merchant in Philadelphia when that
Like his father, he found his recreation
largely in the sketch book and the brush
until late in life.
One of William NJ. Abbeys two sons is
Edwin a. Abbey, and Edwin A. Abbey be-
gan manifesting the artistic trait OF his
grandfather almost from the cradle.
He was barely four years old when he
began making pencil drawings that at
tracted more than passing attention on
the fly leaves and margins of magazines
and books, and few years later he divided
h..fNr hrs.n n
the house with sketches of the family, his
home and his playmates.
About the same time a decided character
isttc, that is remarked upon whenever Mr..
Abbeys art is discussed, began to develop.
Mr.. Abbey is famed among artists as the
profession S most pronounced stickler for
correct costumes and settings for his work.
he has a horror of anachronisms. So, in
order TO be absolutely accurate, he has
gathered from time to time "A collection OF
ancient dress and implements of warfare
that experts in such things hold 10 be un-
equaled.
Wherever he has seen habiliments that
had the spirit and technique of the times
dealt with in the various products of his
brush and pencil, Mr.. Abbey has secured
them, and many of these he has discov-
cred in out-of-the-way corners of Europe.
Others that he has not been able to obtain
in this way he has had built according to
painfully detailed descriptions found in
chronicles and other ancient sources of in
formation.
and work wasted in avoiding an anachron-
ism or undoing one. After he had finished
the painting of Gloucester and the Lady
Anne he discovered that he had got in the
wrong quarterings in the coat-of-arms on
the lady's dress, which is of heraldic de-
sign. Despite the fact that it meant much
labor, he promptly did the skirt over again
In the painting of the Castle of King
Amphortas" there is a vaulted roof, sup
ported by columns with unusual capitals.
That he might not be guilty of an an
aclrOniSn AhheV a
and not only copied, but modelled the cap
itals as well.
This characteristic Mr. Abbey displayed
when, boy just in his teens. he posed
brother and sister and companions always
insisting that their costumes should be
faultless as to time and circumstance. One
of his first sketches to be printed in a maya
zine was Tracking Rabbits"
1t showed two boys out hunting, Mr.. Abb
beyS brother and a friend, and before the
artist would consent to begin the sketch
he wearied the youthful models almost to
the point of rebellion by his fusSinesS over
details of their dress.
1t was the same with the drawings that
he made for the late Oliver optics paper
Our Boys and Girls. The first of these, and
the first of any of Mr. Abbeys handiwork
TO be published. was an illustrated rebus
At that time Mr.. Abbey was fourteen.
But the style of this and other illustra-
tons that appeared frequently in the paper
so attracted Mr.. Adams to the youthful
artist that he cultivated his acquaintance
and later dedicated book TO him.
Two years after the rebus was published
young Abbey went into a wood engraver' s
shop and drew on wood; and il was about
this time too. that he first broke into
Harper's with sketch portraying band
of Puritans celebrati ting 1.-THE first Thanks
/ giving" Concerning this achievement Mr.
Abbey while in this country last year said
to a friend who ngratulated him on Sc
curing the commission for the coronation
picture:
Yes naturally I'm pleased to have been
selected; but. do you know, wasn't tickled
half so much as when l got my first sketch
in Harper'S.
Three years after 1.-THE First Thanksgiv-
ing had been published Mr. Abbey came
to New York In the meantime he had
studied a year or so in the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia,
and to-day there is tradition i'm that school
that Ned Abbey was good artist, but
unwilling"
But once in New York he began develop
ing another trait that is the subject of
much good-natured banter among his fell
lows-in-art He Joined the Tile Club. of
which many artists now famous were men,
bers. f. Hopkinson Smith being among
them.
1t was a duty of the members at the
club meetings TO paint tiles and plaques
and, what not for one anothers studios,
and the result. in Abbey's case. was that he
GU tivated a fondness for spending nearly
every cent he had not necessary for liv-
ing expenses in adjoining his studio and
home.
When he leased Morgan Hall, his Eng
lish home an old rambling structure parts
of which more than three hundred
years old. which is surrounded by an es-
tate of thirty acres, he began altering il
right and left and decorating and embel-
fishing it with much fervor he used
to display in adjoining the studios of his
young days i'm America.
To Morgan Hall Mr.. Abbey has also car
ried his enthusiasm for baseball. He does
not play baseball exactly, but nearly every
day he INDUCES i'm what he considers the
next best thing-cricket.
= Up TO the time that he was. commits
stoned to paint the coronation picture Mr..
Abbey had not been presented to King
Edward. When he summoned before