11 Facts About Edwin Long

Edwin Long was a pupil in the school of James Mathews Leigh in Newman Street London, and practised first as a portrait artist painting Charles Greville, Lord Ebury and others.

Edwin Long made the acquaintance of John Phillip RA, and accompanied him to Spain, and Egypt [1] where they spent much time.

Edwin Long was greatly influenced by the paintings of Velasquez and other Spanish masters, and his earlier pictures, such as La Posada and Lazarilla and the Blind Beggar, were painted under Spanish influence.

Edwin Long became thoroughly imbued with middle-eastern archaeology and painted oriental scenes including The Egyptian Feast, The Gods and Their Makers.

Edwin Long was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1870 and an academician in 1881.

Edwin Long's 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.

Edwin Long 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.

Edwin Long died from pneumonia resulting from influenza, at his home, "Kelston" in Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, on 15 May 1891, in his sixty-second year.

Edwin Long married a daughter of Dr William Aiton, by whom he left a family, of whom a son, Maurice Edwin Long, was killed in a railway accident at Burgos in Spain on 23 September 1891.

Edwin Long had considerable practice as a portrait painter but his success in that line was not conspicuous, although he obtained high patronage and very large prices.

Edwin Long painted for the Baroness Burdett Coutts portraits of herself, her friend Mrs Brown, and Henry Irving.