Edward Middleton Manigault (June 14, 1887 – August 31, 1922) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

-born American

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

painter.

Biography

Manigault was born in

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

, on June 14, 1887.. His parents were Americans originally from

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

who had settled in

after the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. Encouraged in art from an early age, he was commissioned at the age of 18 by the city of London to make renderings of public buildings for reproduction as postcards (examples of his early work are in Museum London, Ontario).. Manigault moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1905 and enrolled in classes at the New York School of Art where he studied under

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

and Kenneth Hayes Miller, alongside classmates such as

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realism painter and printmaker. He is one of America's most renowned artists and known for his skill in depicting modern American life and landscapes. Born in Nyack, New York, to a ...

George Bellows George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realism, American realist painting, painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He became, according to the Columbus Museum of Art ...

, and

Rockwell Kent Rockwell Kent (June 21, 1882 – March 13, 1971) was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager. Biography Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York. Kent was of English American, English descent. ...

. By 1909, he had moved away from Realism and had begun producing paintings in a

Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

style. In that year he first exhibited his work in New York, and in 1910 he participated in the Exhibition of Independent Artists, organized by Henri. In the spring of 1912, he traveled through England and France. In 1913, his work was included in the

Armory Show The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was organized by thAssociation of American Painters and Sculptors It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibition ...

. In 1914, he staged a critically acclaimed one-man show at the Charles Daniel Gallery. His art was purchased by such notable collectors as

J. Paul Getty Jean Paul Getty Sr. (; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was the patriarch of the Getty family. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he was the son of pion ...

and Arthur Jerome Eddy. Despite being emotionally unstable and prone to episodes of depression, Manigault volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver with the British Expeditionary Force in 1915, displaying his spontaneity in marrying Gertrude Buffington Phillips just two days before he shipped out, whereupon he served as an ambulance driver in Flanders from April to November 1915. In November, he received a medical discharge after being exposed to

mustard gas Mustard gas or sulfur mustard are names commonly used for the organosulfur compound, organosulfur chemical compound bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as other Chemical species, species. In the wi ...

. Having suffered a nervous breakdown, he was deemed “incapacitated for service", and his health would continue to decline for the remainder of his life. Back in the United States, he spent some time living in the utopian community of Oneida, New York. In 1919 he and his wife resettled in the

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake to the west and Chinato ...

district of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Later the same year, Manigault travelled without his wife to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and began working in a

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

style, but, displeased with the results of this departure from his typical work, he destroyed nearly two hundred of his own paintings. At around this time in his life, Manigault had begun to practice

fasting Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic sta ...

, in the hopes that starvation and meditation would allow him “to approach the spiritual plane and see colors not perceptible to the physical eye.” Ignoring the entreaties of his friends and family, in August 1922, Manigault fasted for two weeks, his health rapidly declining before he was admitted to the hospital on the 24th, where he died one week later, of

starvation Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, de ...

and

neurasthenia Neurasthenia ( and () 'weak') is a term that was first used as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves. It became a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after neurologist Georg ...

, at the age of thirty-five.

Style

Manigault worked in a wide range of styles following the war, experimenting in abstract and Cubist styles. He found these styles unsatisfying and destroyed most of his paintings. He was inspired by the example of American modernists, including

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and

Marguerite Zorach Marguerite Zorach (née Thompson; September 25, 1887 – June 27, 1968) was an American fauvism, Fauvist Painting, painter, textile artist, and graphic designer, and was an early exponent of modernism in America. She won the 1920 Logan Medal of t ...

. Manigault subsequently became inspired by the

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

, and began to produce decorative works, including ceramics and furniture. He was also commissioned by

Oneida Limited Oneida Limited () is an American manufacturer and seller of tableware and cutlery. Oneida is one of the world's largest designers and sellers of stainless steel and silverplated cutlery and tableware for the consumer and foodservice industries. ...

to design flatware.

Paintings

Manigault is believed to have destroyed as many as two hundred of his paintings; consequently, few paintings by Manigault survive. His work notebooks cover the years from 1906 to 1919. Interest was renewed in his work in 1946, and his paintings were included in the exhibition "Pioneers of Modern Art in America 1903-1918" at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

that year. His work is in the permanent collections of the

Columbus Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collec ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, the

Gibbes Museum of Art The Gibbes Museum of Art, formerly known as the Gibbes Art Gallery, is an art museum in Charleston, South Carolina. Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858, the museum moved into a new Beaux Arts building at 135 Meeting Street, in t ...

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, the

Mint Museum The Mint Museum, also referred to as The Mint Museums, is a cultural institution comprising two museums, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Mint Museum Randolph and Mint Museum Uptown, together these two locations have hundreds of collecti ...

Charlotte, NC Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

, and Museum London, in Ontario, Canada

Art

File:Edward Middleton Manigault - River Scene (A Flotilla on the Hudson).jpg, River Scene (A Flotilla on the Hudson), 1904 File:Middleton Manigault - Procession (1911).jpg, Procession (1911) File:Edward Middleton Manigault - Christ Appearing to Mary (1910).jpg, Christ Appearing to Mary (1910) File:Edward Middleton Manigault - The Source (1914).jpg, The Source (1914) File:Edward Middleton Manigault - Still Life with Lemons (1916).jpg, Still Life with Lemons (1916) File:Edward Middleton Manigault - Still Life with Flowers (1918).jpg, Still Life with Flowers (1918) File:Edward Middleton Manigault - Vorticist Landscape (War Impressions) (c. 1916).jpg, Vorticist Landscape (War Impressions) (c. 1916)

References

Bibliography

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External links

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Edward Middleton Manigault Biography: Hollis Taggart Galleries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manigault, Edward Middleton 1887 births 1922 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters Artists from London, Ontario Painters from Ontario Painters from New York City Modern painters People from Echo Park, Los Angeles Students of Robert Henri 20th-century American male artists Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian Post-impressionist painters