Eden Upton Eddis, album of portraits

Volume containing mounted and loose black and white photographs and engravings of portraits and paintings by Eddis. It is unclear who compiled the album; some of the sitters have been identified through pencil annotations by an unknown individual at an unknown date. Some of the pages in the album are blank.

Eden Upton Eddis (1812-1901) was born in Newington Green, the eldest son of Eden Eddis a clerk at Somerset House and his wife Clementina nee Parker. He was baptized at the Union Independent Church in Islington. He learnt how to draw at a school run by Henry Sass in Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury, before being admitted to the Royal Academy Schools on 8 December 1828, where he won a silver medal in 1831. His father's early death forced him to leave the Royal Academy. As a young man he travelled with his friend, the watercolour painter, James Holland around the continent.

In 1834 Eddis first exhibited at the Royal Academy and over the next fifty years he exhibited 130 pictures there. Most of Eddis' exhibits at the Royal Academy were portraits, he painted a number of schoolmasters and particularly liked painting the portraits of children, he was also known for his portraits in chalk.

Eddis began to go deaf in 1883 and gave up painting professionally. He moved from Harley Street, London to Shalford, near Guildford, Surrey. He had married Elisabeth Brown and they had two children together. He died on 7 April 1901 and was buried at Shalford.

This biographical description is largely based on Anne Pimlott Baker, 'Eddis, Eden Upton (1812–1901)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32968, accessed 3 May 2017]

Available to view by appointment in the Heinz Archive and Library Public Study Room, to make an appointment contact Archive Reception . Although records are generally available for public consultation, some information in them, such as personal data or information supplied to the Gallery in confidence, may be restricted.

Personal photography is permitted for research purposes only. Photocopying is not permitted.