Cathy's Art Diary

Novel exhibition at the National Gallery featuring studies by Edwin Austin Abbey for the decoration of the state house in Pennsylvania. I’d heard a slightly confused talk on the show the day before but the show was more succinct. (Stop press : I said the opposite in my blog post for the talk! I my defence it’s been a while since I saw the show.) Abbey had designed the scheme but then sent the designs to the US for the final work to be done by other artists. He never saw the finished work and died before it was completed. The centrepiece was his design for the dome called “The Hours” which dominated the space and pinged off the wall. It shows one woman for every hour of the day who gradually put on a cloak as night came. It had a sense of a circle of angels on a Renaissance work. I think my favourite piece was this study for steel workers for “The Spirit of Vulcan”. Closed 15 February 2026 Reviews Guardian  

Useful online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their exhibition of studies by Edwin Austen Abbey for the state capital of Pennsylvania. Christopher Riopelle, the curator of the exhibition, introduced us to this American artist who came to London in 1878 and never left. He rapidly made a name for himself in England including being commissioned to paint the coronation of Edward VII. Through his friend, John Singer Sargent, he was commissioned to design the murals for a room at the Boston Public Library and as a result of that he was then commissioned to design more murals for the state capital of Pennsylvania. He did studies for these in England and sent them to the US where Violet Oakley managed the project and completed it from Abbey’s studies after his death. Riopelle took us through the seven works in the exhibition on loan from Yale University explaining how Abbey had a studio built at his house in Sussex to undertake the project. He explained how Abbey produced ...