Edwin Howland Blashfield was a painter and muralist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts after initial coursework in engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He moved to Europe in 1867 to study with Leon Bonnat in Paris and remained abroad until 1881, traveling, painting, and exhibiting his work in salon shows. Following his early success as a genre painter, Blashfield became a widely admired muralist whose work adorned the dome of the Manufacturer’s and Liberal Arts building at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, several state capitols, and the central dome of the Library of Congress. He was a member of numerous arts organizations including the National Academy of Design, the Society of Mural Painters, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Among his many honors, Blashfield was awarded a Gold Medal by the National Academy of Design in 1934, an honorary membership in the American Institute of Architecture, and an honorary doctorate of fine arts by New York University in 1926. His circle of friends included sculptor Daniel Chester French, painters John Singer Sargent and Maxfield Parrish, and architect Cass Gilbert.
CFA Service:
1912–1916