1852 -1911 · American illustration, Shakespeare and great Anglo-American decor

Sought-after costumes, theatrical compositions, sumptuous color and precise narration make Edwin Austin Abbey a modern master of Shakespeare and history.

Edwin Austin Abbey was born in Philadelphia in 1852. He studied briefly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before joining Harper & Brothers as an illustrator. His narrative drawing, attentive to costume and gesture, quickly earned him important literary commissions. Sent to England in 1878 to document the poems of Robert Herrick, Abbey settled there permanently and joined the circle of John Singer Sargent. He collected clothing, weapons, furniture and accessories to give his medieval and Elizabethan scenes exceptional material credibility. He collected clothing, weapons, furniture and accessories in order to give his medieval and Elizabethan scenes exceptional material credibility. He collected clothing, weapons, furniture and accessories in order to give his medieval and Elizabethan scenes exceptional material credibility. Shakespeare became his great field: Hamlet, Richard III and comedies were treated like dramas visuals where color, procession and architecture lead the story. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Lady Anne, exhibited in 1896, condense Richard's menacing seduction in front of the funeral procession. Abbey also created the vast murals for The Quest for the Holy Grail for the Boston Public Library and worked at the Pennsylvania Capitol. He died in London in 1911. The "Edwin Austin Abbey" selection notably pitted Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Lady Anne against each other. His reading favors movement.

Abbey puts scholarship at the service of theater: every costume is accurate, but every color and gesture leads to human conflict.