American Art | Exhibition | Elihu Vedder

While our Hudson River School show will still be on view for another two weeks, the planning for our next exhibition is already in full swing. Opening Thursday, May 10, Questroyal will present Myth and Reality: Elihu Vedder and American Painters in Italy. This exciting exhibition will feature over 25 works by American artist Elihu Vedder (1836–1923), best known as the illustrator of the 1884 English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Vedder spent most of his life abroad and eventually made Italy his permanent home. He brought a mystical sensibility to much of his art, which will be on view alongside works by his contemporaries—including Robert Scott Duncanson, Charles Caryl Coleman, William Stanley Haseltine, George Inness, Walter Launt Palmer, and John Henry Twachtman—who were similarly inspired during travel to the country.

Questroyal is honored to include in this project Dr. Graham C. Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. Dr. Boettcher will lend his expertise on the subject to an essay in our accompanying exhibition catalogue, which will be available by request.

Elihu Vedder, The Gloomy Path, 1865

Elihu Vedder, Girl with a Distaff, ca. 1871

Nina Sangimino is the Research Associate at Questroyal Fine Art. She earned an M.S. in art history from Pratt Institute and a B.A. in the same field from the University at Albany. Prior to joining Questroyal, Nina was Curatorial Apprentice at the Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport, New York.