Edwin A. Abbey, in another chamber of this Boston Library, the delivery room, has his now world-famous decoration, the story of the Holy Grail, perhaps the most popular mural work in this country, certainly the best known, and the shrine for many years of the tourist. It is a series of panels narrating the history of the knights of the Arthurian legend, exquisitely told, for Abbey was a master illustrator, and there is great charm of arrangement and color, all making a popular appeal. Mr. Abbey was further commissioned to decorate the state capitol at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He attacked this work with great interest and enthusiasm, but his labors were interrupted by his death. The task was then taken up by Miss Violet Oakley, herself a distinguished mural painter, who, though handicapped by the circumstances of having to follow out the scheme of another artist, nevertheless disclosed great capacity and has made a success of the performance.
FAMOUS WOMEN, by Barry Faulkner
Decoration for the house of Mrs. E. H. Harriman at Arden, New York. From left to right the women pictured are Cornelia, Beatrice, Judith, Queen of Sheba, Joan of Arc, Helen of Troy, and Pocahontas
PUBLIC LIBRARY DECORATIONS
The Boston Library, it may be stated, offered opportunity for decorative work of an unusual nature, which was taken advantage of by several of the better known men. Elmer E. Garnsey made remarkable designs for the Pompeian lobby, and John Elliott a ceiling in the children’s reference room. The Congressional Library at Washington offered still greater opportunities, engaging the attention of a long list of painters. Here again is seen the hand of Mr. Garnsey, who planned the color scheme; while prominent among the decorations are the works of Elihu Vedder,—six large panels representing Government in its various phases, good and corrupt, of much invention in their allegorical way; for the artist is a highly imaginative man. Mr. Brownell places Vedder in the front rank of the imaginative painters of the day, adding, “Their name is not legion.” Other men who contributed to the Library of Congress include John W. Alexander, who is further represented at Pittsburgh, in the Carnegie Institute, with most important wall decorations; Gari Melchers; Robert Reid, whose list of other work is extensive, including decorations for the capitol at Boston; Henry O. Walker, also represented in the Appellate Court in New York.
PENNSYLVANIA EXCAVATIONS, by Fred Dana Marsh
EDWARD SIMMONS, ROBERT BLUM, AND OTHERS
In addition to these was a painter who has also been one of the most prominent of the decorative men, Edward Simmons. Years ago he won the competition for a decoration for the Criminal Court room in New York, a prize awarded by the Municipal Art Society. A pupil of the Paris schools, a master draftsman, a singularly capable man, his three panels of the Fates won him instant place, and when he further made two decorations for the Massachusetts state capitol there was opened to him a field which he has since followed with distinction. Decorations for the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria, panels for the Appellate Court, for various state capitols and public buildings, and finally enormous embellishments for the Panama fair in San Francisco, place the man in the front rank.