Elihu Vedder (26 February 183629 January 1923) was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator and poet from New York City. He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (deluxe edition, published by Houghton Mifflin).

Biography

thumb|upright|[[Daguerreotype of Vedder as a schoolboy in 1847]]

Elihu Vedder was born on 26 February 1836 in New York City, the son of Elihu Vedder Sr. and Elizabeth Vedder. His parents were cousins. His father, a dentist, decided to try his luck in Cuba, and this had a profound impact on Elihu Jr.'s childhood. The remainder of his childhood was spent between his maternal grandfather Alexander Vedder's house in Schenectady and a boarding school. His mother supported his goals to be an artist while his father reluctantly assented, convinced that his son should try a different occupation. His brother, Alexander Madison Vedder, was a Navy surgeon who witnessed the transformation of Japan into a modern culture while he was stationed there.

Vedder trained in New York City with Tompkins H. Matteson, then in Paris with François-Édouard Picot. Finally, he completed his studies in Italy - where he was strongly influenced not only by Italian Renaissance work but also by the modern Macchiaioli painters and the living Italian landscape.

Exhibitions

In 2008, the Smithsonian American Art Museum organized an exhibition of Vedder's Rubaiyat illustrations that toured several museums, including the Phoenix Art Museum.

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File:Elihu Vedder - Soul in Bondage - Google Art Project.jpg|Soul in Bondage, 1891–92. Brooklyn Museum

File:Vedder, Elihu - The Questioner of the Sphinx - 1836.gif|The Questioner of the Sphinx (1863)

File:Elihu Vedder - The Lair of the Sea Serpent - 84.283 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg|Lair of the Sea Serpent, 1864, MFA Boston

File:Vedder Donkey.jpg|9th study for The miller, his son and the donkey (1867/8)

File:Elihu Vedder - A Peasant Girl Spinning.jpg|Peasant Girl Spinning (1867)

File:The Sun God.JPG|The Sun God (1882)

File:Elihu Vedder - The Pleiades, 1885.jpg|The Pleiades (1885)

File:Corrupt-Legislation-Vedder-Highsmith.jpeg|Mural, Lobby to Main Reading Room, Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. Main figure is seated atop a pedestal saying "CORRUPT LEGISLATION".

File:Good administration mural by Elihu Vedder, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress LCCN2005675761.tif|"Good Administration" mural by Elihu Vedder, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress LCCN2005675761

File:Government-Vedder-Highsmith.jpeg|Government. Mural, Lobby to Main Reading Room, Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. Main figure is seated atop a pedestal ("GOVERNMENT") holding a tablet with "A GOVERNMENT / OF THE PEOPLE / BY THE PEOPLE / FOR THE PEOPLE".

File:Peace-and-Prosperity-Vedder-Highsmith.jpeg|Peace and Prosperity (1896)

File:Head of Minerva.jpg|Minerva, 1896 (preparatory study)

File:Minerva-Vedder-Highsmith.jpeg|Minerva, 1896 (mosaic at the Library of Congress) with Nil invita Minerva, quae monumentum aere perennius exegit from Horace's Ars Poetica

File:Lair of the Sea Serpent.jpg|Lair of the Sea Serpent, 1899, The Met

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References

Further reading

  • www.ElihuVedder.org 80 works online at Elihu Vedder virtual Gallery
  • Artcyclopedia: Elihu Vedder Online
  • Smithsonian Archives of American Art: The Elihu Vedder Papers