Edward Espey (1860-1889) American; Oregon, California, Illinois, Paris; riverine landscape, genre, illustration.

Entrance to Grand Canyon

30 x 20 inches unframed, 36 x 26 inches. framed

Oil on canvas

Signed lower lower right: “Painted by Edward Espey 1887,†and inscribed lower left: “Compliments of GTBrown 1914.â€

Private Collection, Minnesota

Edward Espey studied at the School of Design under Virgil Williams and Raymond Yelland at the San Francisco School of Design, and then in Paris at the Académie Julian under Bouguereau and Constant. He settled in Portland, Oregon, attaining an active role in the local art club. Espey created fine landscape paintings before he died at the young age of twenty-nine, making his artwork increasingly rare to acquire today. He exhibited in Portland as well as three artworks at the Paris Salon in 1881 and 1885, winning a silver medal in 1885. He spent his summers in Brittany and Normandy, where he painted landscapes, village scenes, and marines. Grafton Tyler Brown met Edward Espey as members of the Portland Art Club. It’s believed that Brown was the first professional black artist working in western America. Brown and Espey became close friends, which explains Brown’s painting which created after the death of Espey. This painting is not only unique for its attribution to Espey, but also for its reflection upon the rare work of his close friend, Brown. This untitled work appears to also reference Brown’s painting “Grand Canyon Yellowstone†created in 1889, the year in which Espey passed away. Both paintings share the exact same composition.