Description

This cartoon, or full-sized preparatory study, was made by Edwin Howland Blashfield for the mural “Alma Mater” painted at MIT’s Walker Memorial. The main central portion of the mural on the north wall was painted over the course of about three weeks in 1923 by Blashfield, with the assistance of Vincent Aderente. The two flanking side panels were painted in 1924, and the additional panels on the south wall were added in 1930, at which point Blashfield was in his 80s.

The sketch presented here is typical of drawings made by Blashfield in preparation for large-scale mural commissions. He paid great attention to the details, lighting, and modeling of the figure’s faces; drew densely in charcoal to darken the background of the work, especially in the upper half of the sheet; used white chalk to pick out highlights, especially for halos and other accoutrements; and often drew on large, approximately 37 in x 27 in sheets of paper. Drawings like these were essential to Blashfield’s process and were notable features of his art studio: “His [studio] is a workshop, first and last. Much of the wall space is covered with life-size drawings in charcoal—heads, nudes, costumed figures, and some of draperies only—all of them studies made for some big mural composition” (Grace Whitworth, 1910). It is also well documented that he used these large figural drawings on site as aids to his mural painting process.

Additional Information

Provenance: Private collection, Duxbury, MA; on deposit at Vose Galleries, Boston (September 2004 – May 2010); purchased from Willis Henry Auctions, Inc., Marshfield, MA (March 2015); Private collection. Publication History: Royal Cortissoz and Grace Blashfield, The Works of Edwin Howland Blashfield (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1937), plate 38. Exhibition History: “Edwin Howland Blashfield,” American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY (10 November 1927 – 1 April 1928), cat. 117.