Edwin Longsden Long

Portrait Studies

Edwin Longsden Long was an English genre, history, biblical and portrait painter. He was born in Bath, Somerset, to E. Long, an artist (from Kelston in Somerset), and was educated at Dr. Viner’s School in Bath. Adopting the profession of a painter, Long came to London and studied at the British Museum. He was subsequently a pupil at the Leigh's Academy, a private art school established by James Mathews Leigh in Newman Street, London, and practiced first as a portrait artist painting Charles Greville, Lord Ebury and others. Long met John Phillip and accompanied him to Spain, where they spent much time. Long was greatly influenced by the paintings of Velasquez and other Spanish masters, and his earlier pictures, such as La Posada (1864), Lazarilla and the blind beggar (1870) were painted under Spanish influence. His first important pictures were The Suppliants (1872) and The Babylonian Marriage Market (both subsequently purchased by Thomas Holloway). In 1874, he visited Egypt and Syria, and subsequently, his work took a new direction. He became thoroughly imbued with middle-eastern archaeology and painted Oriental scenes such as The Egyptian Feast (1877) and The Gods and their Makers (1878). Long was elected an associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1870 and an academician in 1881. His pictures always attracted attention and his Diana or Christ? (1881) greatly enhanced his reputation at the time. His pictures suited the taste and appealed to the religious sentiment of a large portion of the public, and their popularity was increased by a wide circulation of engravings. He was consequently determined to exhibit his next pictures in a separate gallery of his own in Bond Street, London and there in 1883, and the following years, his Anno Domini and Zeuxis at Crotona met with great commercial success. Long died from pneumonia resulting from influenza, at his home, Kelston in Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, on 15 May 1891, in his 62nd year. He was buried in West Hampstead Cemetery. Besides the Edwin Long Gallery in Old Bond Street, a number of his pictures were collected together after his death and formed the nucleus of a gallery of Christian Art, which replaced the works of Gustave Doré in the well-known gallery in New Bond Street. He painted for Baroness Burdett Coutts (his chief patron) portraits of herself, her friend Mrs. Brown, and Henry Irving. Among other portraits of his latter years were a memorial portrait of the Earl of Iddesleigh, of which he painted a replica for the National Portrait Gallery, portraits of Cardinal Manning, Samuel Cousins, Sir Edmund Henderson and others.