Edwin Edwards

Identity:

Edwin Edwards was a lawyer, artist and collector. His father was Charles Edwards of Bridgham Hall, Norfolk. He married Elizabeth Ruth Escombe (1833-1907) in 1852. They lived in London and Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey.

It is not clear why Whistler addressed him as 'Charles Price', but the name appears in a series of letters from 7 April 1862 to [17 September 1864] (#03146, #02994, #03192, #03299, #09082, #09083, #09084).

Life:

Edwards was King's Proctor, Examiner of Courts of Civil Law and High Court of Admiralty, but from 1860 devoted his time to art, finally giving up law in 1873. He came to know Whistler through Matthew White Ridley, a fellow student of Whistler in Paris in 1856-57. In 1861, during one of several visits to the Edwin Edwards at Sunbury-on-Thames, Whistler etched Ridley in The Storm [81]. Whistler introduced Edwards to Fantin-Latour, who was visiting that summer, and they became correspondents. At this time Edwards changed from painting in water-colour to oils and made the acquaintance of Jacquemart and other well-known French artists. His pictures of the Cornish coast scenery attracted considerable attention at the Royal Academy, and his Gainsborough Lane was much admired in 1877. He was also a prolific etcher, and he was the President of the Hogarth Club.

Bibliography:

Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004; Druick, Douglas and Michel Hoog, Fantin-Latour, Paris, 1982 , pp. 103-106.