Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow

Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow
Portrait of Longfellow by Julian Russell Story
BornNovember 23, 1845
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedNovember 24, 1921(1921-11-24) (aged 76)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materHarvard College
FatherHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
Relatives
Portrait of Ernest Longfellow, c. early 20th century

Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow (1845–1921) was an American artist in Boston, Massachusetts, and New York. He was the son of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Biography

Ernest Longfellow was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and raised at Craigie House. He was the second of six children, including his younger sister Alice Mary Longfellow. Educated at Harvard College, he passed the winter of 1865 and '66 in Paris in work and study, and the summers of 1876 and '77 in Villiers-le-Bel under Couture.[1] He married Harriet "Hattie" Spelman in 1868. An 1874 newspaper gossiped about him: "Ernest Longfellow, the son of the poet, is described as a slender, delicate young man, an artist of talent, great at ten-pins, and tip-top at gunning."[2]

"His professional life has been spent in Boston, with frequent visits to Europe."[1] In the 1870s he kept a studio on West Street.[3] He exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1871 and 1875; the Williams & Everett gallery in Boston in 1875; the 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia;[1] and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the St. Botolph Club in 1880.[4][5] He belonged to the Boston Art Club.[6] He moved to New York around the turn of the century.[7]

He died in November 1921 at the Hotel Touraine in Boston. "The funeral was held from the Craigie House; ... services conducted by the Rev. Samuel A. Eliot."[8] Longfellow bequeathed some 55 paintings from his collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, including works by Jacopo Bassano,[9] John Constable,[9] Thomas Couture,[9] Luca Giordano,[9] and others.

References

"The Seine", c. 1880, by Ernest Longfellow (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
  1. ^ a b c Clement and Hutton. 1879
  2. ^ New-Orleans Times; Date: 08-19-1874
  3. ^ Boston Directory. 1873
  4. ^ George Parsons Lathrop. Exhibition of Works by Living American Artists at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Opened November 9; To Close December 20, 1880). American Art Review, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Dec., 1880)
  5. ^ G. P. Lathrop. St. Botolph Club, Boston: First Exhibition (Opened May 19, Closed May 29). American Art Review, Vol. 1, No. 10 (Aug., 1880)
  6. ^ Lamb's biographical dictionary of the United States, Volume 5. James H. Lamb Co., 1903
  7. ^ Who's who in New England. 1909
  8. ^ Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow. American Art News, Vol. 20, No. 8 (Dec. 3, 1921), p. 6
  9. ^ a b c d MFA Boston collections. Retrieved 2010-08-11

Further reading

Works by E.W. Longfellow

  • Twenty poems from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; illustrated from paintings by his son Ernest W. Longfellow. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1884. Google books
  • Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow. Random memories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922. Google books

Works about E.W. Longfellow

  • Earl Marble. Longfellow Exhibition. The Aldine, Vol. 8, No. 4 (1876)
  • Clara Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton. Artists of the nineteenth century and their works: A handbook containing two thousand and fifty biographical sketches, Volume 2. Boston: Houghton, Osgood, 1879. Google books
  • Men and women of America: a biographical dictionary of contemporaries. NY: L.R. Hamersly & Company, 1909. Google books
  • Who's who in New England. 1909, 1915.
  • Who's who in America. 1914.
  • Cut off Pacifist Nephews; Longfellow's Son Left Most of $300,000 Estate to Widow. Kansas City Star; Date: 12-08-1921
  • The Bequest of Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow. Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 128 (Dec., 1923), pp. 76–77
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ernest Longfellow.
  • Portrait of Charley Longfellow (left) and Erny Longfellow (right), 1849.
    Portrait of Charley Longfellow (left) and Erny Longfellow (right), 1849.
  • Portrait of Ernest Longfellow and Frederick Crowninshield
    Portrait of Ernest Longfellow and Frederick Crowninshield
  • Interior of Temple of Rameses II at Abu-Simbel, by E. Longfellow (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
    Interior of Temple of Rameses II at Abu-Simbel, by E. Longfellow (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
  • Portrait of H.W. Longfellow by his son, Ernest, 1886
    Portrait of H.W. Longfellow by his son, Ernest, 1886
  • Longfellow's house in Cambridge, designed by Peabody & Stearns
    Longfellow's house in Cambridge, designed by Peabody & Stearns