Edwin Lord Weeks

(1849 – 1903)

Edwin Lord Weeks (1849 – 1903), American artist, painter and explorer, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1849. He was a pupil of Léon Bonnat and of Jean-Léon Gérôme, at Paris. He made many voyages to the East, and was distinguished as a painter of oriental scenes.

Along with Frederic Arthur Bridgman, Edwin Lord Weeks is one of the most celebrated of the American Orientalists, this certainly being so during his lifetime, and although quite a lot is recorded concerning his professional career and travels, much of this from his own extensive travel writings, relatively little is known about his private life.

In 1895 he wrote and illustrated a book of travels, From the Black Sea through Persia and India, and two years later he published Episodes of Mountaineering. He died in November 1903. He was a member of the Légion d'honneur, France, an officer of the Order of St. Michael, Germany, and a member of the Secession, Munich.