Omar’s Emblem

Elihu Vedder prints bring the mystical, dreamlike world of American Symbolism into your home: sibyls and fates, sea serpents, star-gathering maidens and the poetry of Omar Khayyam. Vedder was a New York-born painter, illustrator and poet who spent most of his life in Rome. Our collection of fine art prints covers his visionary paintings, his Rubaiyat designs, Italian landscapes and many figure studies.

About Elihu Vedder

Elihu Vedder was born in New York City on 26 February 1836. His father, a dentist, tried his luck in Cuba, and Elihu spent much of his childhood with his grandfather in Schenectady and at boarding school. He trained in New York with Tompkins H. Matteson and in Paris with François-Édouard Picot, then completed his studies in Italy, where he was influenced by the Renaissance masters, the Macchiaioli painters and the Italian landscape, and became close to the painter Giovanni Costa.

When his father stopped his allowance he returned to the United States during the Civil War, earning a small living from commercial illustration and joining the bohemian circle at Pfaff's coffee house. In these years he painted visionary works such as The Lair of the Sea Serpent and The Fisherman and the Genie, and befriended Walt Whitman and Herman Melville.

After the war he settled in Italy, marrying Caroline Rosekrans in 1869. His fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1884) were a great success and paid for a home on Capri. He also painted murals for the Library of Congress in Washington. He died in Rome on 29 January 1923 and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery there.

Style and Subjects

Vedder's art is visionary and poetic. He painted mysterious figures, sibyls, fates, monsters and allegories of life and death, often with flowing, swirling lines and a decorative sense of design that anticipates Art Nouveau.

His Rubaiyat drawings, in which figures and swirling forms flow across the page, are his masterpiece. He also painted quiet Italian landscapes and made hundreds of careful figure studies for his murals and paintings.

Famous Works

• The Fisherman and the Genie (1863), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A fisherman confronts a towering genie, one of his visionary Civil War-era pictures.
• The Lair of the Sea Serpent (1864), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A great serpent coiled on lonely dunes, one of his most famous images.
• Prayer for Death in the Desert (1867), Brooklyn Museum, New York. A haunting figure alone in the desert.
• The Dead Alchemist (1868), Brooklyn Museum, New York. A mysterious scene of a scholar dead among his books.
• The Cumaean Sibyl. The ancient prophetess of Cumae, one of his best-known images.
• The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1884). His fifty-five illustrations for FitzGerald's translation.
• The Pleiades (1885), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The seven sisters of the star cluster, painted the year after the Rubaiyat.
• The Cup of Death. A dark, poetic allegory of mortality.

Decorating with Vedder Prints

Vedder's mystical figures, like The Pleiades or The Fates Gathering in the Stars, suit a study, library or reading room, where their muted blues and golds create a thoughtful, dreamy mood. They are a natural choice for lovers of poetry and myth.

His Italian landscapes, such as Fiesole or the Roman Campagna, bring warm light to a hallway or living room, and his figure studies make an elegant group for a studio or office.

FAQ

What is Elihu Vedder best known for?

He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1884) and for visionary paintings such as The Lair of the Sea Serpent.

What art movement was Elihu Vedder part of?

He is regarded as an American Symbolist painter, influenced by the Italian Renaissance and the Macchiaioli.

Where did Elihu Vedder live?

He was born in New York but lived most of his life in Italy, in Rome and on Capri. He is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.

Where can I see Vedder's work?

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum hold his work, and his murals are in the Library of Congress in Washington.

Related Artists

• Giovanni Costa: Italian painter who was his close friend
• John La Farge: American muralist and painter of the same generation
• Kenyon Cox: fellow American muralist at the Library of Congress
• William Blake: visionary artist-poet whose mystical spirit his work shares