 Edgar Spier Cameron
From Ottawa, Illinois, Edgar S. Cameron (1862-1944), a long-time resident of the Tree Studio Building, became a leading Chicago muralist. His training began at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, from where he transferred to the Art Students League in New York to study under William Merritt Chase and Thomas Wilmer Dewing, members of American impressionist painters known as The Ten. Cameron spent two years in Paris (1884-1886); part of that time he was enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
During the last decade of the nineteenth century, Cameron maintained studios and residences at 558 East Division Street (1896-1911) and at the Tree Studio Building (1913-23). He was the Chicago Tribune’s art critic, and between 1891 and 1936 he took part in the Art Institute’s annual exhibitions. Titles indicate that mostly landscapes were submitted, and one can trace Cameron’s extensive travel through Paris, Brittany, Belgium, Illinois, and to Santa Fe. Sparks (1971, p. 318) stressed Cameron’s portraiture and mural painting. He was given decorative commissions in the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Indianapolis, in Chicago’s Railway Exchange Building and in the Lincoln Center Settlement. He also executed murals at the World’s Columbian Exposition, where he exhibited In the Studio, painted in 1888 (unlocated). At the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo (1901) his work entitled Alone Henceforth was on display. His large religious painting, The Youth of Christ was widely admired. The Illinois State Museum has Cameron’s Cabaret Breton, an oil canvas dated 1916.
Sources:
Clarkson, Ralph. “Chicago Artists: Past and Present.” Art and Archaeology 12 (September-October 1921): 129-144; Sparks, Esther. A Biographical Dictionary of Painters and Sculptors in Illinois 1808-1945. Diss., Northwestern University, 1971, pp. 318-319; Morse, Annie. Capturing Sunlight: The Art of Tree Studios. Exh. cat. Chicago: Department of Cultural Affairs, 1999, p. 40.
Submitted by R. H. Love and Michael Preston Worley, Ph.D. He exhibited at the following: Trans-Mississippi & International Exposition - 1898, Paris Exposition 1900, Pan-Pacific Exposition - 1901, Kansas City Art Institute - 1921, Century of Progress and Romany Club -1927
Cameron was a member of the Illinois Academy of Fine Arts.
Information provided by Wayne Kielsmeier, Covington Fine Arts Gallery
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