Three (3) Edwin Maximilian Gardner (Tennessee, 1845-1935) paintings including oil on board seascapes and self portrait drawing. 1st and 2nd items: Two (2) marine paintings, including one (1) titled "Sea of Galilee," each depicting ocean waves beneath late afternoon skies. Smallest painting signed "Edwin M. Gardner WAX." en verso of board, largest painting with an old Nashville Museum of Art paper label with artist's name, title, and additional information, en verso of board. Both housed in carved wooden frames. Sights range in size from 5 3/4" H x 7 3/4" W to 9 3/4" H x 15 3/4" W. Frames range in size from 8 3/4" H x 10 5/8" W to 15 1/2" H x 21 1/2" W. 3rd item: Edwin Maximilian Gardner (Tennessee, 1845-1935) graphite on paper self portrait drawing depicting a three quarter view of the artist as a young man, wearing a Civil War era kepi style hat with lyre and wreath insignia and a suit and bow tie. Unsigned, possibly obscured by mat. Handwritten inscription reading "Portrait of Edwin M. Gardner/Drawn By Himself 28th August, 1871/Framed by Jack Ansley 20th February, 1972" en verso of frame. Housed and double matted under glass in a wooden frame. Sight: 17 3/4" H x 12 3/4" W. Framed: 28 3/4" H x 23 1/2" W. Provenance: Art Collection of former Watkins College of Art; proceeds benefit scholarship endowment for students in the new Watkins College of Art at Belmont University. Biography: "Edwin M. Gardner, illustrator, portraitist, and cartographer, was born near Pulaski in Giles County, TN, but while still a young boy, he moved with his family to Mississippi, where he probably had some formal training in art. While in his teens, Gardner fought in the Civil War as a member of Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry. Following the war, he began his formal art education in Memphis, then moved to Europe to train at the Royal Academy in Brussels, with later studies in France and Italy. Upon his return to the United States, Gardner resumed study at the National Academy of Design in New York. Afterwards, he moved to Aberdeen, Mississippi, where he taught art at a female academy. He next moved to Winchester in Franklin County [TN], where he spent five years on the faculty at Mary Sharp College. Gardner made his last home in Nashville, where he had his greatest artistic influence. He made the first woodcuts and pen portraits for photoengraving used in the local daily newspapers, including the first published pen portrait of Sarah Childress Polk. Although Gardner was listed in the catalogue of the 1885 Watkins Institute Art Show as a teacher there, he actually taught under the auspices of the Nashville Art Association [which he co-founded] in the art room which Watkins provided. His first official association with Watkins's Night School probably came in September 1910, when he was hired to teach industrial art. (School commissioners were perhaps still uncomfortable with the term "fine" art.) Gardner's presence on the Watkins Institute faculty gave the school a teacher trained in commercial and fine arts. He encouraged his students to draw by taking casts and using live models, and this laid the foundation for the school's Department of Fine Art." (source: "Edwin M. Gardner" by Madeline Reed, Tennessee Encyclopedia, originally published October 8, 2017,https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/edwin-m-gardner/).

1st and 2nd items: Both items with yellowing to varnish layer. Largest painting with surface scratches, areas of loss, largest 1/4" at midsection of top edge, Board slightly shifted in frame. Smallest painting with craquelure, board slightly bowed to center. Both frames with areas of loss, largest 2 1/4". 3rd item: Sheet in fragile condition with foxing spots, tears, largest 2 1/4", areas of loss, largest 2 1/2" x 2 1/2". Edges of sheet with old masking tape repairs. Sheet has shifted down in frame. Not examined outside of frame.