E A Burbank

Elbridge Ayer Burbank was born in Harvard, Illinois, on August 10, 1858. After studying at the Chicago Art Academy, he received a commission to illustrate Northwest Travel & Life Magazine, essentially an advertisement published to encourage homesteading. The traveling entailed in finishing this commission brought Burbank through Montana, Idaho and Washington and fostered a profound appreciation for the American West in him. After the completion of the Northwest project, E. A. Burbank went to Munich to study, where he met J.H. Sharp and William R. Leigh, who would remain lifelong friends. As did countless other artists who met Sharp, E. A. Burbank became focused on traveling and painting the Indian people of the Southwest. When he returned from Germany, he was hired by his uncle, Edward Ayer, the first president of the Field Columbian Museum, to paint portraits of the great Indian leaders of the day. Elbridge A. Burbank took on the project and once completed, did not stop, continuously traveling around the country painting as many Indian subjects as he could. All told, E. A. Burbank painted over 1200 Indian portraits in his lifetime. His travels put him in contact with some of the prominent figures of the West, including Lorenzo Hubbell, who he counted amongst his better friends and Geronimo, whose portrait he painted and who is rumored to have said that he liked Burbank better than any other white man he ever met. Today, E. A. Burbank's work can be seen in the collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Smithsonian and the Field Museum. After almost twenty years spent in insane asylums, Elbridge Ayer Burbank died on April 21, 1949, in San Francisco of injuries sustained from being struck by a cable car in downtown San Francisco.

An empty wall in your home is a blank canvas, and that’s good news. Whether you’ve chosen to arrange a collage of paintings in a hallway or carefully position a handful of wall-mounted sculptures in your dining room, there are a lot of options for beautifying your space with the antique and vintage wall decor and decorations available on 1stDibs.

If you’re seeking inspiration for your wall decor, we’ve got some ideas (and we can show you how to arrange wall art, too).

“I recommend leaving enough space above the piece of furniture to allow for usable workspace and to protect the art from other items damaging it,” says Susana Simonpietri, of Brooklyn home design studio Chango & Co.

Hanging a single attention-grabbing large-scale print or poster over your bar or bar cart can prove intoxicating, but the maximalist approach of a salon-style hang, a practice rooted in 17th-century France, can help showcase works of various shapes, styles and sizes on a single wall or part of a wall.

If you’re planning on creating an accent wall — or just aiming to bring a variety of colors and textures into a bedroom — there is more than one way to decorate with wallpaper. Otherwise, don’t overlook what textiles can introduce to a space. A vintage tapestry can work wonders and will be easy to move when you’ve found that dream apartment in another borough.

Express your taste and personality with the right ornamental touch for the walls of your home or office — find a range of contemporary art, vintage photography, paintings and other wall decor and decorations on 1stDibs now.