Edward Simmons (painter)
{{Short description|American painter (1852–1931)}}
{{other people||Edward Simmons (disambiguation){{!}}Edward Simmons}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Edward Simmons
| image = Edward Emerson Simmons.jpg
| image_size = 175px
| birth_date = {{birth date|1852|10|27}}
| birth_place = Concord, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{death date and age|1931|11|17|1852|10|27}}
| death_place = Baltimore
| occupation = Painter/Muralist
| spouse = {{plainlist}}
- {{marriage|Vesta Schallenberger|1883|1903|end=divorced}}
- {{marriage|Alice Ralston Morton|1903}}
{{endplainlist}}
| children = William Francis Simmons (1884-1949)
George Bradford Simmons (1886-1956)
}}
Edward Emerson Simmons (1852-1931) was an American Impressionist painter, remembered for his mural work.
Biography
His father was a Unitarian minister. He graduated from Harvard College in 1874, and was a pupil of Lefebvre and Boulanger in Paris, where he took a gold medal.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Simmons, Edward Emerson|volume=25|page=123}} In 1894, Simmons was awarded the first commission of the Municipal Art Society, a series of murals—Justice, The Fates, and The Rights of Man—for the interior of the Criminal Courthouse at 100 Centre Street in Manhattan. This court is the criminal branch of New York Supreme Court (the trial court in New York), where many New Yorkers serve on jury duty. Later Simmons decorated the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel, the Library of Congress in Washington, and the mural series "Civilization of the Northwest" in the Minnesota State Capitol rotunda in Saint Paul.
In the year 1914, he travelled with Childe Hassam to view the Arizona desert paintings of the rising California artist Xavier Martinez at his Piedmont studio.
Simmons was a member of the Ten American Painters, who, as a group, seceded from the Society of American Artists. He was also considered a contributor to the style known as the American Renaissance, a movement after the American Civil War that stressed the relationship of architecture, painting, sculpture and interior design.
Simmons published his autobiography in 1922.
Vandalism of painting
File:The Carpenter's Son by Edward Simmons 1889-89.jpgIn 1996, his painting The Carpenter’s Son, located in the First Unitarian Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts, was yanked from the wall and cut out from its frame. The section depicting Jesus taken cutout and removed with the rest of the painting left lying on the floor.{{Cite web|last=writer|first=David Rising, Standard-Times staff|title=Church desecration hits emotional chord|url=https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19961105/news/311059997|access-date=2021-03-05|website=southcoasttoday.com|language=en}} The lost section was found in 2006 rolled up behind a refrigerator when it was being removed from the congregation’s kitchen.{{Cite web|last=FRAGA|first=BRIAN|title=Church to restore slashed painting|url=https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20070228/NEWS/702280343|access-date=2021-03-05|website=southcoasttoday.com|language=en}} The painting was then restored and ownership transferred to the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum.{{Cite web|title=Our Building – The First Unitarian Church in New Bedford|url=https://uunewbedford.org/?page_id=27|access-date=2021-03-05|website=uunewbedford.org}}
Gallery
File:Awaiting his return, 1884 Edward Simmons.jpg|Awaiting his return, 1884, private collection
File:Edward Simmons, The Reflection, oil on canvas.jpg|The Reflection
File:Girl Reading, 1893 Edward Simmons.jpg|Girl reading 1893, private collection
File:Simmons12.jpg|Wrześniowe popołudnie, 1892
File:Night, 1889 Edward Simmons.jpg|Night
File:High Sea, 1895 Edward Simmons.jpg|High Sea, 1895
File:SimmonsJulyAfternoon.jpg|July Afternoon, 1906
File:Boston-Public-Gardens-Edward-Simmons.jpg|Boston-Public-Gardens, 1910
= Civilization of the Northwest Gallery =
Image:Civilization of the Northwest-panel-1.png|Rotunda (Southeast Corner)
Image:Civilization of the Northwest-panel-2.png|Rotunda (Southwest Corner)
Image:Civilization of the Northwest-panel-3.png|Rotunda (Northwest Corner)
Image:Civilization of the Northwest-panel-4.png|Rotunda (Northeast Corner)
= Melpomene mural (Library of Congress) =
File:Melpomene-Simmons-Highsmith.jpeg|Melpomene mural (full picture, 1896), at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Photograph (2007) by Carol Highsmith (1946–).
File:Melpomene-Simmons-Highsmith-detail-1.jpeg|Melpomene mural (detail, 1896), at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Photograph (2007) by Carol Highsmith (1946–).
References
{{Reflist}}
- Edward Simmons, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000369662 From Seven to Seventy: Memories of a Painter and a Yankee, with an Interruption by Oliver Herford.] New York: Harper & Brothers, 1922. Oliver Herford (1863–1935) was an American author and illustrator.
External links
{{commons category-inline|Edward Simmons}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmons, Edward}}
Category:19th-century American painters
Category:American male painters
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:American Impressionist painters
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Académie Julian alumni