Eliphalet Frazer Andrews (June 11, 1835 – March 15, 1915), an American painter known primarily as a portraitist, established an art instruction curriculum at the behest of
William Wilson Corcoran
William Wilson Corcoran (December 27, 1798 – February 24, 1888) was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Early life
Corcoran was born on December 27, 1798, in Georgetown in the Di ...
at his
Corcoran School of Art
The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...
, and served as its director, 1877–1902. He received many commissions to create both original portraits and copies of images of deceased famous Americans, which are displayed by federal, state, and local institutions. His art is housed at the
Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Ohio State Capitol, and numerous paintings at
The White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...
and the
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...
.
Early life
Born in
Steubenville, Ohio
Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from Fort Steuben, a ...
, to Dr. Alexander Hull and Eliza Ann (Frazer) Andrews, he received early training at
Marietta College
Marietta College (MC) is a private liberal arts college in Marietta, Ohio. It offers more than 50 undergraduate majors across the arts, sciences, and engineering, as well as Physician Assistant, Psychology, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, a ...
in Ohio, and further study in the
Royal Prussian Academy, Berlin, in the atelier of
Ludwig Knaus, at the Düsseldorf Academy and with
Leon Bonnat at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
Career
Following the election of his friend
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...
as President Andrews moved to Washington, D.C.
William Wilson Corcoran
William Wilson Corcoran (December 27, 1798 – February 24, 1888) was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Early life
Corcoran was born on December 27, 1798, in Georgetown in the Di ...
hired Andrews to establish an art instruction curriculum at his
Corcoran School of Art
The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...
. Andrews served as its director, 1877–1902, and later as the
Corcoran Art Gallery until his death. Pupils included
Catharine Carter Critcher
Catharine (sometimes Catherine) Carter Critcher (September 13, 1868 – June 11, 1964) was an American painter. A native of Westmoreland County, Virginia, she worked in Paris and Washington, D.C. before becoming, in 1924, a member of the Taos Soci ...
and
Daisy Blanche King.
Several federal government agencies, mostly through the
Architect of the Capitol
The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is the federal agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol Complex. It is an agency of the legislative branch of the federal government and is ...
,
Edward Clark, commissioned Andrews to make copies of existing portraits.
Thus, several of his portraits, are in
The White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...
collection, including posthumous full-length portraits of
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...
(''illustration''),
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
and
Andrew Johnson. His ''Poppies'' and ''Edge of a Stream'' are at the
Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Former Kentucky Lieutenant Governor
John C. Underwood, President of the
United Confederate Veterans
The United Confederate Veterans (UCV, or simply Confederate Veterans) was an American Civil War veterans' organization headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was organized on June 10, 1889, by ex-soldiers and sailors of the Confederate Sta ...
, commissioned Andrews to make twenty portraits of prominent
Confederates for a proposed Confederate Museum in
Richmond, Virginia. The project was embroiled in litigation, and eleven paintings were sold in 1910 for unpaid storage fees by a
Covington, Kentucky
Covington is a home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States, located at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking Rivers. Cincinnati, Ohio, lies to its immediate north across the Ohio and Newport, to its east across the Licking ...
warehouse. Most ended up in Virginia (such as that of Gen.
Robert E. Lee in the
Westmoreland County Courthouse), but three are in the collection of the Kentucky Museum at
Western Kentucky University
Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...
. The Confederate Memorial Association, led by Virginia lieutenant governor
James Taylor Ellyson and financed by
Thomas Fortune Ryan
Thomas Fortune Ryan (October 17, 1851 – November 23, 1928) was an American tobacco, insurance and transportation magnate. Although he lived in New York City for much of his adult career, Ryan was perhaps the greatest benefactor of the Roman Ca ...
did build its headquarters (the Confederate Memorial Institute a/k/a "Battle Abbey") in Richmond, which is now the
Virginia Historical Society
The Virginia Museum of History and Culture founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history. It is a private, n ...
. Perhaps the most famous paintings therein are the "Four Seasons of the Confederacy" murals by
Charles Hoffbauer
Charles Constantin Joseph Hoffbauer (June 28, 1875 - July 26, 1957) was a French-born artist who became a United States citizen. He painted a wide variety of subjects, including many that depicted scenes of historical interest.
Early life and ed ...
.
Clarance Randolph Howard, son of Major William Key Howard of the Confederate States of America, great-grand-nephew of
Francis Scott Key, and great-grandson of
John Eager Howard
John Eager Howard (June 4, 1752October 12, 1827) was an American soldier and politician from Maryland. He was elected as governor of the state in 1788, and served three one-year terms. He also was elected to the Continental Congress, the Cong ...
(U.S. Senator and Governor of Maryland), commissioned Eliphalet Frazer Andrews to complete a portrait of his wife (shown here), Mary French Howard, in 1908. This is one of the few known remaining original portraits by the artist of a non-political or military official.
Personal life
In 1895 Andrews married
Marietta Fauntleroy Minnigerode (1869–1932). She was the daughter of
Charles Ernest Frederick Minnigerode (1816–1891), rector of
St. Paul's Church in
Richmond, Virginia, and she was active in the
Daughters of the Confederacy
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...
. E. F. Andrews was a member of the
Metropolitan Club
The Metropolitan Club of New York is a private social club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1891 for men only, but it was one of the first major clubs in New York to admit women, t ...
in Washington, D.C.
Death and legacy
Andrews died in Washington, D.C. on March 15, 1915, and his remains were returned to
Steubenville, Ohio
Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from Fort Steuben, a ...
. In 1917, his widow presented his portrait of Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forrest to the Confederate Memorial in
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020 ...
.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Eliphalet Frazer
19th-century American painters
American male painters
20th-century American painters
Burials at Union Cemetery-Beatty Park
1835 births
1915 deaths
People from Steubenville, Ohio
Painters from Ohio
Prussian Academy of Arts alumni
Corcoran School of the Arts and Design faculty
American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts
American expatriates in Germany