Edward Chalmers Leavitt Biography | Oil Paintings

At the start of the American Civil War, Edward Chalmers Leavitt enlisted at Boston in the United States Navy, and between the Civil War years of 1862 and 1863, he served on the U.S.S. Galena, during his Navy service, Leavitt practiced his drawing technique.

Little is known of Edward Chalmers Leavitt's career, most of his paintings featured tabletop arrangements of flowers, fruit, antiques, and vintage bric-a-brac, and were sought after by the new American middle class. The oil on canvas paintings often was marked by their sense of texture. During the 1870s and 1880s, Leavitt exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York.

There are indications that during his career, Edward Chalmers Leavitt worked with the talented Martin Heade. Leavitt was known to have studied earlier with local artist James Morgan Lewin, a painter of romantic canvases. During his career, Edward Chalmers Leavitt painted thousands of canvases, turning out his trademark paintings of flowers, fruit, fish, and game for a hungry middle class anxious for artworks to decorate their newly acquired homes.

Artists Influencing Edward Chalmers Leavitt: Martin Heade, James Morgan Lewin.
From Wikipedia.