Edwin White
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Edwin White (May 21, 1817 in
South Hadley, Massachusetts South Hadley (, ) is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,150 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield metropolitan area, Massachusetts. South Hadle ...
– June 7, 1877 in
Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the ...
) was an American
painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
.


Life and career

Edwin White studied in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
,
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, and
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
and later taught at the
National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...
, in New York. In addition to his studies under several different American and European painting masters, he also attended lectures at a Medical College in New York City to study anatomy. He also attended Amherst; where he received an A.M. by the end of 1856. Works by White, mostly in storage, are in the collections of Yale; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum; and the
New-York Historical Society The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...
. A notable moment in White's career was noted in October, 1855, when he met the painter
Sanford Robinson Gifford Sanford Robinson Gifford (July 10, 1823 – August 29, 1880) was an American landscape painter and a leading member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. A highly-regarded practitioner of Luminism (American art style), Luminis ...
in Paris and told Gifford that he was about to return to New York, was destitute, had no commissions, and might have to return to portrait painting. However, when White did return to his New York studio, he went to work on his ''Mayflower'' painting, which he sold off the easel for $1,000, and a new and successful stage of his career was launched. His painting of Washington resigning was painted on commission by the state of Maryland, for $6,000, when White had returned to Paris. The ''Mayflower'' painting was the basis for a 5-cent stamp issued in 1920 as part of the Pilgrim Tercentenary. An apparently later, unfinished painting of the same subject, from 1867, was left by the artist to Yale, and the university art museum has a collection of some 24 sketches White made preparatory to painting. The artist was cousin to
Andrew Dickson White Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American historian and educator who co-founded Cornell University, one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States, and served as its first president for nearly two de ...
, the first president of
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
.''Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography'' edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske
(D. Appleton and Company, 1889), pp. 467-8.


Influential works

*''The Compact of the ''Mayflower'' '' 1855-56 * ''Washington Resigning his Commission'' 1858 * ''Pocahontas Informing John Smith of the Conspiracy of the Indians'' *''Major Anderson Raising the Flag at Fort Sumter'' 1862.


Gallery

File:The Antiquary MET GRR White Ptg. 77.5 Ret.jpg, ''The Antiquary'', 1855 File:Washington Resigning His Commission 1859.jpg, ''Washington Resigning His Commission'', 1858 File:'Thoughts of Liberia - Emancipation' by Edwin White, 1861.jpg, ''Thoughts of Liberia - Emancipation'', 1861 File:'Major Anderson Raising the Flag...' by Edwin D. White.jpg, ''Major Anderson Raising the Flag at Fort Sumter'', 1862


Minor works

*''Fisher boy'', Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut. A sentimental genre subject of a boy and his dog.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Edwin 1817 births 1877 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters Amherst College alumni National Academy of Design faculty Painters from Massachusetts People from South Hadley, Massachusetts 19th-century American male artists