During a recent trip to England, I determined to visit Mr. Abbey, and
obtain from him some message for his young countrymen who are beginning
where he began thirty years ago. He has a beautiful country house known
as Morgan Hall, in Gloucestershire, an attractive English county. In
this house is the largest private studio in the whole country, built
especially for the preparation of the Boston Library decorations,
which Mr. Abbey recently completed. It measures twenty-five by fourteen
yards, and has a high ceiling. In this room I observed a number of
great easels, for Mr. Abbey usually has several pictures in progress
at one time, but they occupied only a fraction of the space. It would
be hard to imagine a studio more perfectly equipped for work. Great
tapestries hung from heavy frames, not for ornamentation, but for
study; carved oak doors and panels were resting against the walls, and
scattered everywhere were casts of curious architecture. Priceless
armor was displayed on every side, and along the walls were a number
of canvases which had been used for studies, or paintings which had
not been completed. There were chests filled with velvets, brocades
and silks of various ancient periods. All these things are accessories
of Mr. Abbey’s craft and nothing more. He uses them in working out
the details of his historical paintings. There were trestles full of
elaborate studies and half-finished drawings standing about, and,
tacked upon the walls were photographs of pictures of many interesting
periods.
Mr. Abbey has also a vast collection of costumes. They are of all
periods, and one might suppose himself in the stock room of some great
theater. All these costumes help in depicting the dress worn at some
great event which the artist desires to put upon canvas. Mr. Abbey is
very accurate and careful in his work, and has never been challenged in
any details of fact, of costume, of architecture, or of accessory. It
must not be supposed that any of these costumes and decorations are
copied in the paintings; they are merely suggestions for invention.
Mr. Abbey’s industry and energy are prodigious, so that I was quite
prepared to find him at work when I visited his studio. Although the
artist has lived abroad for many years, he is thoroughly American
in his personality, and I might have been talking with him at a
Philadelphia studio, instead of in the heart of England.