The Times Saturday May 6th 1891

The epidemic has claimed another notable victim in Mr Edwin Long RA, who, we regret to announce, died last night at his home at Netherhall-gardens, Hampstead, from pneumonia, the, the result of a short but exceptionally severe attack of influenza. By his death the Royal Academy loses one of its members, and the public an artist whose work, though it failed to reach the highest excellence, was sometimes learned and always popular.

Like many other painters, Mr Long sought subjects for the most part in scenes illustrative of Oriental and classical antiquity. Egyptian priests, Babylonian slaves, Assyrian lion-hunters, and Roman Catholics lived and moved in his canvases, and in the many engravings produced from them, with considerable dramatic power, and archaeological accuracy. The picturesqueness of such subjects was indisputable, and Mr Long frequently had the good fortune to find his work prominent among what are called the "pictures of the year." The "Babylonian Marriage Market" which illustrates Herodius's descriptions of the purchase and portioning of Babylonian maidens was one of Mr Long's earliest and best successes. It was painted in 1875, and was followed two years afterwards by the "Egyptian Feast" which has, perhaps, not achieved an equal popularity. Among Mr Long's non too numerous later works should be mentioned "Anno Domini" 1883, "Diana or Christ" 1881, "Pharoah's Daughter in 1886; neither of which is as impressive as his more important and earlier performances.

Mr Long, who was born in 1829 was chosen as an Academician in 1881. He was present at the annual dinner a fortnight ago in excellent health, and is represented in the present exhibition of the Academy by a graceful portrait. It should be added that Mrs Long and Miss Long are also seriously ill with influenza.

The Art Journal 1891

By the death of Mr Edwin Long RA., which occurred through influenza on the 15 May, the Royal Academy lost one who ranked amongst the most popular of its members in the eyes of the majority of the vast public which now interests itself in matters of Art. 

The son of an artist, and born in Bath in the year 1828, Edwin Long was painting portraits and an exhibitor before he was sixteen, and his first picture was hung at the Royal Academy in 1855. It was not, however, until twenty year afterwards that he was elected to an Associateship, but in consequence of the important works which he thereupon exhibited, he was quickly advanced to the rank of a full member, the honour coming to him in 1881. 

Opinions as to his status as an artist differ very materially; to the large mass of the populace he was a great artist, for independently of his painting religious pictures, which are still most popular, and in spite of his wrapping up his  subject in a vast amount of erudition, his work almost always contained a keynote of interest, which not only fastened itself on the memory, but sometimes even engrossed attention to an altogether unexpected extent; an instance of this occurred in his “Diana or Christ,” which was in consequence extraordinarily popular. 

Then, again, Mr Long was exceptionally fortunate from a monetary point of view, owing to mere accident. It happened that his most notable work, “The Babylonian Marriage Market,” was put up for sale in 1882, just at the moment when Mr Holloway was forming his collection of pictures, and was buying regardless of price : this work sold for 6,300 guineas, the largest price which had ever been paid under the hammer for the work of a living British artist. Henceforward he was able to put high prices on his productions, and it was evidently the means of his building a very handsome dwelling at Hampstead, which he has only lived to enjoy for a very short while. 

He was a remarkably strong man, never having suffered a day’s illness, and this caused a neglect of ordinary precautions and of the sickness when it first seized him, which brought about the fatal result. 

In addition to those before mentioned, his most notable works were “The Egyptian Feast,” “The Pool of Bethesda,” “The Gods and their Makers,” and one or two pictures which have no been shown in public but at the Dore Galley in Bond Street, where, since the death of that artist, most of his productions have been shown.

My Comments

Edwin Long was a considerable figure in the English art world during his lifetime, his work frequently being compared with that of Frederic Leighton PRA. Following his sudden death, his reputation virtually disappeared, long before Victorian art became unfashionable and despised.

The house Long had built in Hampstead became known as Severn House. Just before the First World War the house was purchased by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), the leading English orchestral composer of the day. Elgar regarded composers as far more significant artists than painters, and much resented the greater earning power of the latter. He would have enjoyed the irony of his buying and living in Long’s house.

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