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Ad Code: 4
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An example of work by Edna W. Lawrence
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Edna Lawrence followed in Eliza Gardiner's footsteps as the Grande Dame of instructors at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she started teaching in 1922. Generations of R.I.S.D. students were inspired by her nature lab design class, drawing actual specimens. She took charge of the school's newly opened College Building in 1937 and was responsible for greatly enlarging the collection of natural history specimens, including mounted insects, minerals, shells, living plants and various animals. This extensive collection was used by Lawrence to help her students explore the beauties of nature.
By the time she retired from the Rhode Island School of Design (1974) she had amassed a teaching collection of more than 25,000 specimens. In 1981 the Rhode Island School of Design renamed the Nature Lab the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab.
Lawrence was most active in the Providence Art Club. She was awarded the RISD Alumni Award and the Providence Art Club Gold Medal.
She lived in Providence, Rhode Island, and Richmond, New York.
At the R.I.S.D. she studied with Eliza Gardiner and A. Hibbard, before she became a teacher there herself. As a fine artist Edna Lawrence exhibited her drawings and paintings at major institutions in such cities as Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and New Orleans. Among other museums, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts includes Lawrence's work in its permanent collection. Her work shows skillful draftsmanship and composition, often with a strong modernist perspective.
Edna Lawrence was a full member of the American Federation of Arts, the Providence Water Color Club and the Society of Independent Artists, New York. During summers she constantly traveled for the Rhode Island School of Design, collecting specimens and producing a number views and figure studies.
A retrospective exhibit of her work was held in 1996 at the Bert Gallery in Providence.
Sources include:
"Who's Who in American Art", 1940
Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art", Sound View Press: Madison, Connecticut, 1999.
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