Edward Clifford

Edward Clifford in 1896

Tito Melema, pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, with gum arabic painting by Edward Clifford

Portrait of Father Damien, by Edward Clifford, graphite on paper, 1868, Honolulu Academy of Arts

Edward Clifford (1844-1907) was an English artist and author born in Bristol. He is best known for his portraits in watercolor, and was associated with the Aesthetic Movement in late 19th-century England. He was also a member of the Church Army, which evangelized for the Church of England. Clifford visited India and Kashmir to learn about methods of controlling leprosy. He returned to England and then traveled to Honolulu and visited the leper colony in Kalaupapa, Hawaii in 1868, where he met Father Damien. After returning to England, Clifford made watercolor paintings from portrait sketches made in Hawaii and eventually published an account of the journey.

The Bishop Museum (Honolulu), the Harvard University Portrait Collection, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the National Portrait Gallery (London), and the National Portrait Gallery (United States) are among the public collections holding work by Edward Clifford.

Artists with similar names

There are two other artists with similar names:

• Edward Charles Clifford (1858-1910) was a British artist who painted Victorian interior scenes in oil paint.
• Edward M. Clifford was an American landscape and portrait painter active in Illinois in the early 19th century.

References

• Bénézit Dictionary of Artists, English Edition, Paris, Grund, 2006.
• Clifford, Edward, Father Damien; A Journey from Cashmere to his Home in Hawaii, London, Macmillan, 1889.
• Rooks, Michael, Portrait of Joseph Damien de Veuster (Father Damien), ca. 1889, By Edward Clifford, Calendar News, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Vol. 80, No. 1, 2008, pp. 10-11.
• Severson, Don R. Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections, University of Hawaii Press, 2002, pp. 83-4.

External links

• Edward Clifford in AskArt.com
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Inventories Catolog