The Dying Sea Gull by Elhiu Vedder
~~~
Fly on, sea-birds!
fly sideways,
or wheel in large circles high in the air;
Receive the summer sky,
you water,
and faithfully hold it
till all downcast eyes have time
to take it from you!
Diverge,
fine spokes of light,
from the shape of my head,
or any one’s head,
in the sunlit water!
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman
The American artist Elihu Vedder (1836-1923); an American symbolist painter, book illustrator, and poet; is little known in contemporary art circles.
Vedder made a small living by undertaking commercial illustrations. He was involved in the bohemian ‘Pfaff’s’ coffee house group, and painted some of his most memorable paintings notable for their visionary nature, romantic imagery and often Oriental influences. Paintings of this time include ‘The Roc’s Egg’, ‘The Fisherman and the Genii’ and one of his most famous works, ‘Lair of the Sea Serpent.’ In the USA he sought out and became friends with Walt Whitman, Herman Melville and William Morris Hunt.
At the end of the Civil War he left America to live in Italy. He married Caroline Rosekrans and had four children. His daughter Anita Herriman Vedder played a vital role in handling the business of her father, who was notorious for his general aloofness towards details. Elihu’s son Enoch Rosekrans Vedder was a promising architect who married jewelry designer Angela Reston.
Elhiu Vedder often painted scenes of tragedy and death. In The Dying Seagull one bird from the flock of Black headed gulls has fallen to the beach. Gulls are monogamous and the dying birds mate remains with it while their flock flies away in the distance. The paintings’ poignant meditation on the loss of family had particular resonance for Vedder; who two of this children had died before he painted this image.
To create paintings such as the dying sea gull Vedder combined observation of nature with fantasy. A similar seascape appears in several of Vedders’ paintings and is most like based in a beach in Italy where he lived much of his adult life. While the setting is from Vedders experience the artist’s subjects came from his imagination memory or literary sources.
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