New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-08-02
EDWIN 4. ABBEY.

Edwin \. Abbey is untimely lost. for
he has died in his prime, when 1t stu
seemed that there were many solld
achievements before him. Indeed, he
left unfinished one of the most inn
portant undertakings Of his career. Born
at philadelphia in 1859. he was faith
ful son of Pennsylvania, and we believe
that the pLnels fOI the Capitol in liar-
risburg. which were described last sun
day by orr Tendon correspondent, were
tainted b., Abbey out of sheer enthr-
siasm for the establishment Of the build
ing for which he was commissioned to
execute the large decorations, most az
which are now i'm place there. At Har-
rsburg certainly he buildcd the monu-
ment to himself as an artist into which
he poured his best devotion and his
highest abilities. IT marked the culmi-
nation Of career which. as II happened.
promised at the outset very different
things.
Abbey was n born illustrator. When
he came To New York in his youth ana
found employment on the staff that drew
for "Harrer's Magazine and Harper :
Weekly" he disclosed almost immediate
" Il charm absolutely his own. II was
charm in perfect harmony with that
&C old English literature. Those early
files to which he contributed will yield
10 the curious biOgrapher drawings OF
many different subjects, some Of them
essentially modern. but Abbcy's most
characteristic work was done in the
Illustration of IIerrick and other old
poets. Their fragrance. their pastoral
ouaintneSS. their SAVIOR as of curds and
cream. passed into his drawings as nat
urally as though he had himself lived
the life they sang. Later. in his memo
rable Illustrate for Shakespeare, he
developed the aptitude of the arch9olo-
Cist. making himself an expert III mat
ters of costume. furniture and the like.
but it was the fine spirit of his work
which gave it vitality-that and a tech
niuue which made him one of the salient
pen-dPaftsmen Of his time. He had n
genius for ancient romance, and re
search into its trappings did not blight
the spontaneity of his interpretations of
its soul His pictures for Shakespeare
are full of life and movement. composed
with true zest and often revealing, both
in the action of figure and the express
SOB of n face, Il keen instinct for char
acter
The special sympathies and interests
that moved Abbey as an illustrator were
carried over into the work that he did
in color. He painted subjects from
Renaissance Italy or EliZabethan Eng
land. When he departed from these tn
paint for the walls of the Boston Pub
lic Library episodes from The High His
tory of the Holy Grail he only stepped
from one chamber of English romance
into another. from IIclrick and Shake
Speare 10 the glamour of the Arthuran
Legend. II was natural enough that he
should have made his home in England,
where ne was elected to the Royal Acad-
envy. and. i'm 1901 chosen by the late
King Edward 10 paint the official pict-
Utt III Ills iblbIldlI'll. Ipuls dN We huN'
said, Abbey was a loyal Pennsylvania,
and in his decorations at Harrisburg
he broke with the tradition that had
50 long inspired him, giving himself up
with ardor 10 the representation of those
special ideas which had governed the
growth Of his native state. The mines
aud the oil fields. with their brawny
labOrers, their derrcls aud other unro-
mantle constructions, their powers of
fire and electricity. touched his imagina-
ton to new efforts. He dealt i'm the
issues of Il civilization utterly innocent
OF Herrick's playful sentiments with Il
dCepened emotion and Il heightened skill.
This monumental scheme of his shows a
weight of design, a dignity of color and
force of execution TO which he had not
previously attained. 1t remains, we re
peat. his best monument