Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow (1845–1921) was an American artist in Boston and New York. He was the son of poet 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. Ernest later recalled that his father was an active guide in his childhood: "It was always to my father that we went in our childish troubles".Kennedy Kostya. The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night that saved America. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2025: 228.
Educated at Harvard College, he passed the winters of 1865 and 1866 in Paris in work and study, and the summers of 1876 and 1877 in Villiers-le-Bel under Thomas Couture.Clement, Clara Erskine and Laurence Hutton. Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works: A handbook containing two thousand and fifty biographical sketches. Boston: Houghton, Osgood, 1879: Volume 2, 74–75. Google books He married Harriet "Hattie" Spelman in 1868. An 1874 newspaper described him "as a slender, delicate young man, an artist of talent, great at ten-pins, and tip-top at gunning."New-Orleans Times; Date: August 19, 1874
His professional life has been spent in Boston, with frequent visits to Europe. In the 1870s he kept a studio on West Street.Boston Directory. 1873 He exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1871 and 1875; the Williams & Everett gallery in Boston in 1875; the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition; and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the St. Botolph Club in 1880.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)G. P. Lathrop. St. Botolph Club, Boston: First Exhibition (Opened May 19, Closed May 29). American Art Review, Vol. 1, No. 10 (Aug., 1880) He belonged to the Boston Art Club.Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States, Volume 5. James H. Lamb Co., 1903 He moved to New York around the turn of the century.Who's who in New England. 1909
He died in November 1921 at the Hotel Touraine in Boston. The funeral was held from the Craigie House and services were conducted by the Rev. Samuel A. Eliot."Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow". American Art News, Vol. 20, No. 8 (Dec. 3, 1921), p. 6 Longfellow bequeathed around fifty-five paintings from his collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, including works by Jacopo Bassano,MFA Boston collections. Retrieved 2010-08-11 John Constable, Thomas Couture, Luca Giordano, and others.
References
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) 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
External links
WorldCat. Longfellow, Ernest Wadsworth 1845-1921 US National Park Service. Ernest Longfellow Archives of American Art. Ernest Wadsworth and Harriet S. Wadsworth Longfellow sketchbooks, 1867-1903 Harvard College . The Longfellow Family in Italy. Photograph, 1869. Group portrait including Hattie and Ernest Longfellow.
Image gallery