Elihu Vedder (1836 – 1923) was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator, and poet, born in New York City.

He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (deluxe edition, published by Houghton Mifflin).

Elihu Vedder was born February 26, 1836 in New York City, the son of Dr. Elihu Vedder Sr. and Elizabeth Vedder. His parents were cousins. His father, a dentist, decided to try his luck in Cuba and this had a profound impact on Elihu Jr.'s childhood. The remainder of his childhood was spent between his maternal grandfather Alexander Vedder's house in Schenectady and a boarding school. His mother supported his goals to be an artist while his father reluctantly assented, convinced that his son should try a different occupation. His brother, Dr. Alexander Madison Vedder, was a Navy surgeon who witnessed the transformation of Japan into a modern culture while he was stationed there.

Elihu Vedder's Drawings for the Rubaiyat

Left to right: Elihu Vedder, Cover, 1883-1984, watercolor on paper; Elihu Vedder, The Cup of Death, 1883-1884, chalk, pencil and ink on paper

In the ten months from May 1883 to March 1884, American artist Elihu Vedder (1836-1923) completed a series of 54 drawings in pencil, ink, chalk, and watercolor to accompany the 1884 edition of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat. All of these original drawings, which were proclaimed a masterwork of American art, are included in the special exhibition Elihu Vedder's Drawings for the Rubaiyat from the National Museum of American Art on view at Joslyn Art Museum from September 26,1998 through January 3, 1999. The exhibition will also include two first edition printings of Khayyam's Rubaiyat with Vedder's "accompaniments" (he disliked the term illustrationsj.

Left to right: Elihu Vedder, The Vain Pursuit, 1883-1984, chalk, pencil, ink and watercolor on paper; Elihu Vedder, Omar's Horoscope, 1883-1884, chalk, pencil, ink and watercolor on paper; Elihu Vedder, The Throne of Saturn, 1883-1884, chalk, pencil, ink and watercolor on paper

Written ca. 1120 by Persian poet-philosopher Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), the Rubaiyat is a collection of quatrains, or poems of four lines, intended to prove the futility of mathematics, science, and religion in determining the meaning of life. First translated from Persian to English in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald, editions of Khayyam's Rubaiyat have since appeared in numerous forms and languages, thebest-loved, best-known, and most elaborate being the 1884 edition illustrated and designed by Elihu Vedder.

Vedder was one of the first artists of his generation to train in Paris where he developed his signature Academic style and focused on what would become his favored subject: the classically proportioned female nude. In the years 1883 and 1884, he created 54 compositions to accompany the 1884 edition of Khayyam's Rubaiyat (published by Houghton, Mifflin) - drawings that serve as a harmonious frame for the text. Living in Rome at the time, Vedder also designed the book's cloth-bound cover, lining papers and eccentric hand-drawn letters. With his Academic and yet "visionary" style, Vedder was the ideal artist to interpret the Rubaiyat; he reconciled the critics who called for accurate depiction of observed reality with those who argued for feeling and emotion over objective form.





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