Edwin Longsden Long Biography | Oil Paintings

Edwin Longsden Long decided to go to London to become a painter and entered the British Museum Art School to study under James Mathews Leigh. In 1857 he became friends with John Phillip, and they both traveled to Spain, where they spent much time sketching and painting. Long was influenced by the paintings of Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez and other Spanish masters, and his earlier paintings, such as La Posada and Lazarilla and the Blind Beggar, were painted under Spanish influence. Edwin Longsden Long was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1870. He visited Egypt and Syria in 1874, and he became thoroughly imbued with middle-eastern archaeology and painted oriental scenes like the Egyptian Feast, The Gods and their Makers.

Edwin Longsden Long was elected an academician of the Royal Academy in 1881. His oil paintings always attracted attention and his religious paintings greatly enhanced his reputation at the time. His paintings appealed to the religious sentiment of the public, and the wide circulation of engravings of his paintings increased his popularity. Due to his popularity, he decided to exhibit his next paintings on his own in London starting in 1883, and in the following years, his Anno Domini and Zeuxis at Crotona met with great commercial success.

Edwin Longsden Long had significant practice as a portrait painter but he was not prominent in that style of painting, despite the fact he obtained high patronage and very large prices. He painted for Baroness Burdett Coutts, his chief patron, portraits of herself. Among other portraits of his latter years were a memorial portrait of the Earl of Iddesleigh, of which he painted a reproduction for the National Portrait Gallery, and portraits of Cardinal Manning, Samuel Cousins, and Sir Edmund Henderson.

Art Movement: Romanticism, Orientalism.
Artists Influencing Edwin Longsden Long: James Mathews Leigh, Diego Velasquez.
He Traveled To Spain, Egypt, Syria.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.