Edward "Ned" I.R. Jennings (May 16, 1898 – May 7, 1929) was an artist of the Charleston Renaissance era, one of the first abstract artists in the city.

Biography

Edward "Ned" I.R. Jennings was born on May 16, 1898, in Washington, D.C., but was just few weeks old the family moved to Charleston, where his father was the postmaster. Jennings' father also helped to develop

Folly Beach Folly Beach is a public city on Folly Island in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,617 at the 2010 census, up from 2,116 in 2000. Folly Beach is within the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville metropolitan are ...

. Jennings trained for service in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

at the Porter Military Academy, but was discharged because he was born with a cleft palate. He entered the medical corps in 1919 and went to France. He was gassed, recovered in England and went back to Charleston. At first he attended College of Charleston, but then moved to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and Carnegie Technical Institute, where he studied art, stagecraft and design. In 1927 he went to Paris and studied privately with Mela Meuter and Walter Renee Fuerst. Back in Charleston, Jennings was one of the first abstract artists in the city and had his studio inside the

Confederate Home The Confederate Home is a retirement home located in an early 19th-century building at 60 Broad Street in Charleston, South Carolina. The building started as a double tenement in about 1800, built for master builder Gilbert Chalmers. From 1834 ...

at 62 Broad Street, Charleston. His mentor was

Laura Bragg Laura Mary Bragg (October 9, 1881 – May 16, 1978) was an American museum director who became the first woman to run a publicly funded art museum in America when she was named the director of the Charleston Museum in 1920. She later directed the ...

, a museum director who became the first woman to run a publicly funded art museum in America when she was named the director of the Charleston Museum in 1920. Jennings was a member of the junior section of the Natural History Society as a child and assisted Bragg with the natural history collection at the museum. Jennings was an assistant curator of the museum. A gay man, many of his works include homoerotic themes; most of them are housed at the Gibbes Museum of Art. He published in the ''College of Charleston Magazine'', and was an influence on the painter

William Halsey William Frederick "Bull" Halsey Jr. (October 30, 1882 – August 16, 1959) was an American United States Navy, Navy admiral during World War II. He is one of four officers to have attained the rank of five-star Fleet admiral (United States), f ...

. Ned I.R. Jennings died by suicide on May 7, 1929, aged 30 after the bad end of a relationship with another man. He staged his death on his studio on Broad Street as it was one of the stage sets he designed: near his body there was a Bible, an empty bottle of champagne and a gun.

Exhibitions

* ''A Lonely Soul, The Art of Edward Jennings'', Gibbes Museum of Art.

Legacy

Harlan Greene in the novel ''Why We Never Danced the Charleston'' based the character of Ned Grimke on Jennings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Ned I.R. 1898 births 1929 suicides 1929 deaths American gay artists LGBT-related suicides Charleston Renaissance 20th-century American LGBT people Suicides by firearm in South Carolina