Biografie von David Scott EVANS (1847-1898)

Birth place: Boston, IN

Death place: Atlantic Ocean

Addresses: Logansport, IN; Cleveland, OH; NYC 1887-on

Profession: Painter, teacher

Studied: Albert Beaugureau in Cincinnati, 1864; Académie Julian, Paris with Wm. A. Bouguereau in Paris, 1877

Exhibited: NAD, 1881-96; Brooklyn AA, 1891; Tennessee Centennial Exhib., 1897.

Work: Carnegie Inst.; Portland AM; T.D. Crocker Collection, Cleveland; Fresno Metropolitan Mus.; Columbus Mus. Art; Yale Univ. AG; Snite Mus. Art, Univ. Notre Dame

Comments: Evans was a major portrait and trompe l'úil painter who is still surrounded by some mystery. He married in 1872 and taught music and art at Smithson College (Logansport, IN). From 1873-75, he taught at Mt. Union College (Alliance, OH) where was was chairman of the art dept. In 1874, he opened a studio in Cleveland and was a founder of that city's first art club. When the Cleveland Acad. FA was founded in 1883, he taught there and became a popular painter of elegant young women at leisure and of genre scenes. In this and his portrait work he signed as De Scott Evans." He also is known to have painted several trompe l'úil works signed "De Scott Evans" and "D. Scott Evans". In 1889, he was commissioned to paint a ceiling in Paris, but he and his family tragically died when their steamer, the Bourgogne, collided with another ship and sank en route. Several scholars including Gerdts and Burke conjecture that Evans may have also created additional trompe l'úil works, signed "S.S. David," "Stanley S. David," Scott David," and "David." The best known of these works are of peanuts or almonds against simulated wood grain with knotholes and splits in the wood. He was christened David Scott Evans.

Sources: Burke & Gerdts, American Still-Life Painting, 1971; Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 2: 256; "A Tangled Web" by Nanette Maciejunes, Ohio Hist. Soc. Timeline, Nov. 1988, p.34; For Beauty and for Truth, 49 (w/repro.); William Kloss in American Paintings, Schwarz Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1998, cat. no.30. "