Edward Chalmers Leavitt - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Edward Chalmers Leavitt (1842–1904), a native of Providence, Rhode Island

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

, was an early New England painter said to be the most renowned still life

Still life

A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...

painter of his day in Providence, although today he is largely forgotten.

Leavitt was born March 9, 1842, the son of Providence pastor Rev. Jonathan Leavitt and his wife Charlotte Esther (Stearns) Leavitt. Leavitt's father Rev. Jonathan Leavitt, was born at Cornish, New Hampshire

Cornish, New Hampshire

Cornish is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,640 at the 2010 census. Cornish has three covered bridges. Each August, it is home to the Cornish Fair.-History:...

, and later settled in the ministry at Bedford, Massachusetts

Bedford, Massachusetts

Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is within the Greater Boston area, north-west of the city of Boston. The population of Bedford was 13,320 at the 2010 census.- History :...

, where he married the daughter of the primary minister Rev. Stearns, and subsequently was ordained minister of Richmond Street Congregational Church in Providence, where he remained for a quarter of a century. Rev. Leavitt's son Edward Chalmers Leavitt, born in Providence, attended private schools in Providence, and Kimball Union Academy

Kimball Union Academy

Kimball Union Academy is a private boarding school located in New Hampshire. Founded in 1813, it is the 22nd oldest boarding school in the United States...

in Meriden, New Hampshire

Meriden, New Hampshire

Meriden is a village in the eastern part of the town of Plainfield in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. Meriden is home to Kimball Union Academy, a private boarding school....

. (His only sister Charlotte married Edward Slocum of Providence.)

At the outbreak of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Leavitt enlisted at Boston in the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

with his friend William Warren Flint of Walpole, New Hampshire

Walpole, New Hampshire

Walpole is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,734 at the 2010 census.The town's central settlement, where 605 people resided at the 2010 census, is defined as the Walpole census-designated place , and is east of New Hampshire Route 12...

. During his Navy service, Leavitt frequently practiced his drawing technique.

Little is known of Leavitt's career. Most of his paintings featured tabletop arrangements of flowers, fruit, antiques and vintage bric-a-brac, and were sought after by the Victorian middle class. The oil on canvas paintings often were marked by their sense of texture. During the 1870s and 1880s Leavitt frequently exhibited at the National Academy of Design

National Academy of Design

The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...

. But as the new century approached, Leavitt's output and quality declined, and his reputation faded.

There are indications that during his career, Leavitt worked with the gifted Martin Heade. Leavitt was known to have studied earlier with local artist James Morgan Lewin, a painter of romantic canvases. During his career, Leavitt painted thousands of canvases, turning out his trademark paintings of flowers, fruit and dead fish and game for a hungry middle class anxious for artworks to decorate their newly-acquired homes. At one time, Leavitt's still lifes decorated Boston's esteemed Parker House

Omni Parker House

The Omni Parker House is a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Omni Hotels. The name of the hotel derives from the original Parker House, which first opened in 1855. Founder Harvey D. Parker ran the hotel until his death in 1884, when the business passed on to his partners.-19th...

hotel as well as the Narragansett Hotel in Providence. Leavitt worked at his studio at the Hoppin Homestead Building in Providence.

Among the artists of the day, Leavitt was seen as a solid—if uninspired—craftsman. Painter Charles Walter Stetson

Charles Walter Stetson

Charles Walter Stetson was an American artist often known as a "colorist" for his rich use of color. He married Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1884, their only child was born in 1885, they were separated in 1888, and they divorced amicably in 1894....

, for instance, didn't disguise his contempt for Leavitt's steady output for the upper middle classes, which Stetson saw as influenced by the Fall River school. "Artists! they are not artists," wrote Stetson in a fit of pique. "Leavitt himself said to me 'After all, Mr. Stetson, say what we may, we are only dry goods merchants in another line."

Leavitt's work is in the collection of the Brandywine River Museum

Brandywine River Museum

The Brandywine River Museum is a museum of regional and American art located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Brandywine River. The museum showcases the art of Andrew Wyeth a major American realist painter, and his family: his father, N.C...

, which has called him "Providence, Rhode Island's most successful still life painter of the nineteenth century." Leavitt's work is also in the collection of the Cahoon Museum of American Art

Cahoon Museum of American Art

The Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, Massachusetts has eight galleries in a 1775 Georgian Colonial home.-Museum:Highlights of the permanent collection include the works of Cape Cod artists Ralph Cahoon and Martha Cahoon and other prominent 19th Century American artwork by Ralph Blakelock,...

in Cotuit, Massachusetts

Cotuit, Massachusetts

Cotuit is a village on Cape Cod in the City of Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States. Located on a peninsula on the south side of Barnstable about midway between Falmouth, Massachusetts and Hyannis, Massachusetts...

, and in the collection of the Cummer Museum of Art

Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens

The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens is a public museum located in Jacksonville, Florida. The museum focuses on portraying European and American artistic paintings. The museum also has a large collection of Meissen porcelain...

In Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

External links

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