Edmund Darch Lewis (1835-1910) | White Mountain Art & Artists

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Edmund Darch Lewis was born in Philadelphia on October 17, 1835 to a successful, wealthy, well-connected family. He was the son of William Lewis and at the age of fifteen, left formal schooling and studied art from 1850 to 1855 under the tutelage of landscape painter Paul Weber. Lewis exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for many years beginning in 1854. His works were widely esteemed and he was elected an Associate of the Pennsylvania Academy in 1859.

Lewis also exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum from 1858 to 1869, and at the National Academy of Design in 1860. Although he became especially known for his watercolor marine paintings, he painted a wide range of landscape subjects throughout his career, including numerous views of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. He was a prolific artist, reportedly completing as many as two or three canvases in a single day.

Lewis was a frequent visitor to the White Mountains, with dated paintings of the region ranging from 1857 to 1876. White Mountain subjects exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts included:

1858 – Evening at North Conway
1858 – Lake Winnipiseogee (W/C)
1858 – Mount Washington (W/C)
1858 – Chocorua Mountain (W/C)
1859 – View in the White Mountains
1859 – Distant View of Mt. Washington
1859 – Intervale North Conway Mount Washington
1862 – Evening on Lake Winnipiseogee
1862 – Scene in the White Mountains
1865 – Lake Winnipiseogee
1866 – Valley of the Pemegewasset
1866 – Lake Winnipiseogee
1868 – Valley of the Merrimac River N.H.
1876 – The Old Man of the Mountain: Franconia Notch (W/C)
1877 – Valley of the Amonoosuck
1881 – First Touch of Autumn: Valley of the Amonoosuck.

A highly productive artist, Lewis enjoyed considerable commercial success during his lifetime. In addition to painting, he became widely known as a collector of fine art, furniture, porcelain, tapestries, and historical objects. Over many decades, he assembled an extraordinary collection that filled his Philadelphia residence. Regarded as one of the most important private collections owned by an American artist, it attracted the attention of collectors, connoisseurs, and visitors from across the country.

Lewis remained active as both artist and collector throughout his life. Unmarried, he died at his Philadelphia home on August 12, 1910, following a prolonged illness complicated by pneumonia. Funeral services were held at his residence, 30 South Twenty-second Street, on August 15, conducted by Rev. B. M. Bird of St. James’s Protestant Episcopal Church. His body was cremated, and his ashes were interred at St. James the Less Cemetery in Falls of the Schuylkill, Philadelphia.

Following his death, Lewis’s Philadelphia residence and its celebrated collection of paintings, tapestries, furniture, porcelain, and historical artifacts passed to his niece, Mrs. Clifford Wheaton Vaughn. Contemporary reports valued the house and its contents at approximately half a million dollars.

Obituary From New-York Tribune
New York, NY / Saturday, August 13, 1910 / Page 7 / EDMUND DARCH LEWIS.

Philadelphia, Aug. 12.–Edmund Darch Lewis, artist and art collector and member of a prominent Philadelphia family, died at his home here this afternoon. He had been ill from bronchitis for nearly a year. Mr. Lewis was seventy-three years old. He achieved a wide reputation as a collector of curios from all parts of the world. His collection of paintings, tapestries, relics and bric-a-brac is said to be worth $500,000.

Image of Edmund Darch Lewis