Edwin Tryon Billings

Edwin Tryon Billings (1824-1893) was a portrait painter in 19th-century United States. He lived in Montgomery, Alabama; Worcester, Massachusetts; and in Boston. Among his numerous portrait subjects were Daniel Webster, William Lloyd Garrison and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Biography

Billings was born November 20, 1824, to wheelwright Ira Billings and Eunice Tryon of Massachusetts.George Sheldon
History of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Vol. 2.
Deerfield, Mass.: E.A. Hall & co., 1896. Page 84. He lived in Montgomery, Alabama, intermittently c. 1850-1859; and in Worcester, Massachusetts, c. 1854-1856. He "first visited Worcester in 1854. Billings painted several important Worcester residents, including John Davis and Stephen Salisbury. His work hung in many public buildings including the Worcester County Courthouse and Mechanics Hall."

He moved to Boston in the 1860s, working in the Studio Building on Tremont Street c. 1864-1891. In the 1874 exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association Billings showed several paintings, including "Child and Kitten," and "Children and Rabbits." His work also appeared in the 1887 National Academy of Design exhibit.

Billings married Frances E. Keller in 1867. Friends included painter George Fuller, with whom he travelled in the southern United States. Among Billings' possessions was a copy of Walt Whitman's ''Two Rivulets,'' annotated by Whitman, and notably auctioned for a relatively high sum in 1909.

Portrait subjects included:

* Ira Billings, father of E. T. Billings
* James Freeman Clarke
* Alpheus Crosby
* Thomas Russell Crosby
* John DavisPaine. Portraits and busts in possession of the American Antiquarian Society, and of other associations in Worcester, Mass. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Jan. 1876
* George Fuller
* Helen Eliza Benson Garrison, wife of W. L. GarrisonNew York Historical Society
Retrieved 2010-10-02
* William Lloyd Garrison
* Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
* Abraham Lincoln
* Maria Mitchell
* Andrew Preston PeabodyEdward J. Young. Memoir of Rev. Andrew P. Peabody. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Second Series, Vol. 11, 1896
* Abigail Lord Rogers
* Stephen Salisbury
* Daniel Webster
* Calvin Willard

;Portraits by E. T. Billings

Image:William Lloyd Garrison by Edwin T Billings NYHistoricalSociety.png, Portrait of W. L. Garrison, 19th century (New York Historical society)
Image:1889 OWHolmes byETBillings.png, Portrait of O. W. Holmes Sr., 19th century
Image:Charles Gideon Putnam MD ca1860s by Edwin T Billings HistoricNewEngland.png, Portrait of Charles Gideon Putnam, MD, c. 1860s (Historic New England)
Image:DanielWebster by Edwin T Billings.png, Portrait of Daniel Webster, 19th century
Image:Isaac Adams by Edwin T Billings.png, Portrait of Isaac Adams, 19th century

References

Further reading

* George C Groce. New-York Historical Society's dictionary of artists in America. NY: 1957
* Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American painters, sculptors & engravers.
* Edwin C Pancoast. Billings of Boston—Yankee portrait painter : a new look at the life, times and work of Edwin Tryon Billings (1824-1893) and his early association with photography. Chevy Chase, Md.: Pancoast, 1990.
* Obituary. Boston Daily Globe, Oct 21, 1893

External links

Smithsonian
Art Inventories Catalog. "Billings, Edwin Tryon, 1824-1893, painter"
* Preservation Worcester

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billings, Edwin T
1824 births
1893 deaths
Painters from Boston
19th century in Boston
American portrait painters
Cultural history of Boston
19th-century American painters
American male painters
19th-century American male artists