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Fitzgerald, Edmond James

Last Name:	Fitzgerald
First Name:	Edmond James
Dates:	1912 (Date of Birth) 1989 (Date of Death)
Biography/History:	Edmond James Fitzgerald was born in Seattle in 1912, one of seven children. He and his brother Maurice, Jr. graduated from the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco where they studied with Lee Randolph. Fitzgerald accompanied a U.S. Geological Survey expedition on his first trip to Alaska when he was nineteen, returning there almost annually for the next ten years. Known by fellow artists as Jim, Fitzgerald studied in the Northwest with Mark Tobey and Eustace Ziegler. Fitzgerald's studio was down the hall from Ziegler's on the Seattle waterfront. In 1941, Fitzgerald was quoted by a Seattle Times columnist: "Artists and businessmen would arrive at Ziegler's studio at lunch and catch a glimpse of paint being applied to canvas. Noon time conversations were not only of painting but of philosophy and a way of life." In Ziegler's Alaskan painting titled Reconnaissance, in the collection of the University of Alaska Museum, Fitzgerald is shown, rifle over shoulder, one of three figures viewing the snow-covered terrain. In the late 1930s, Fitzgerald, Ziegler, and Eric Johanson went on painting excursions, often using Johanson's studio near Index on the Skykomish River as a base. Fitzgerald also set up a studio on the Oregon coast near Haystack Rock, a subject he loved to paint. In 1940, Fitzgerald married his student Mary Louise Streets, a Seattle ceramics artist who later collaborated with him on several murals. They had two children, who became frequent subjects for their father's canvases. The artist's portrait work always found strong support. In an article about his Seattle Art Museum one man show in December, 1941, Seattle journalist Virginia Boren praised Fitzgerald's portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Johnson. Fitzgerald, seeking a balanced view of his work for that show, proclaimed: "My serious work is the marine subject, but I like to do portraits occasionally." Fitzgerald's love of water and marine images is strongly associated with the Pacific Northwest. After active duty during WWII, he joined the Naval Reserve, retiring after twenty-six years as a commander. During his naval service he was often chosen, as an artist, to record naval activity. Just prior to World War II Fitzgerald, his wife and their children moved to New York. After active service, the family moved to Larchmont, N.Y. He was hired to teach at the Newark Academy of Art and Parson's School of Design, and later joined the faculty of New York City's Academy of Design. Mary Louise Fitzgerald died in 1977. The following year Fitzgerald met and married Margaret Trent and they moved to her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio where they lived until Fitzgerald's death from cancer in 1989. Edmond James Fitzgerald was the first Honorary President of the American Watercolor Society. He received many awards and often served as juror for exhibitions. He wrote two books and several articles, but his greatest contributions to the art world are his paintings.
Related Objects:	3549.1 (Painting, Grand Coulee)