Lemuel D. Eldred (1849-1921) | White Mountain Art & Artists

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Lemuel David Eldred apprenticed with William Bradford. In 1880 he had formal training in Paris but retained in his best pictures a planar, Yankee austerity that seems at times primitive, at times modern.

Born in Fairhaven, MA March 15, 1849, Eldred exhibited considerable artistic talent as a child. With the support of his parents, he made his way to the Academie Julien and later embarked on a Mediterranean tour that included Gibraltar, Venice, Alexandria, and the Nile River. Once home, he soon established a studio in Boston, the city where he would make his career. Following William Bradford’s passing, he purchased his mentor’s studio and had it moved to the foot of North Street in Fairhaven, MA. Later in life, Eldred established a home studio and adjoining antiques shop at 14 William Street in New Bedford, MA.

Eldred was a quite prolific painter, but he was an infrequent exhibitor. He contributed six paintings to the Boston Art Club during the years 1876 to 1886. He exhibited at the American Society of Painters in Watercolors in 1875 and at the National Academy of Design in 1876. Eldred was also a writer, and penned articles on subjects of art, and American history for local newspapers.

Eldred’s favorite subject was the sea, a passion he developed as a youth while watching his father work as a ship builder. He painted coastal scenes all along the shores of Massachusetts, Maine, the Bay of Fundy, and the St. Lawrence River. His White Mountain paintings were often of the Androscoggin Valley. In August of 1879, he was in Tamworth sketching Mount Chocorua and Chocorua Lake.

On June 15, 1880, Eldred auctioned 50 paintings at Ellis’s Fine Art Rooms in New Bedford, MA. The following are paintings listed with definitive White Mountain titles: # 22 Madison, NH $250; #24 Androscoggin River $350; #27 White Horse Ledge $225; #28 Mount Madison $450; #29 Moat Mountain $500; #32 The Androscoggin Intervale $300; #40 Mount Moriah – Androscoggin $475; #47 Mount Madison and the Androscoggin River $1100; #48 White Mountains $700.

Following a bout with pneumonia, Eldred passed away on November 24, 1921 at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, MA. He was 72 years of age at the time of his death, and was survived by a brother, a nephew, and three nieces. Funeral services were conducted by Reverend Charles S. Thurber of the Seaman’s Bethel on November 27, 1921. Eldred was laid to rest at Riverside Cemetery, Fairhaven, MA.

Images of Lemuel D. Eldred