Edwin Lord Weeks

1849 – 1903

American painter. He was a disciple of Léon Bonnat and Jean-Léon Gérôme who became America's most prominent painter of North African Orientalist genre scenes. Weeks's parents were affluent spice and tea merchants from Newton, a suburb of Boston, and as such they were able to finance their son's youthful interest in painting and travelling. In 1870 he went to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts with Léon Bonnat and Jean-Léon Gérôme. After living in Morocco from 1873-1880, he established his studio in Paris. He continued to travel extensively in the Middle East, painting and photographing. His illustrations and accompanying narratives of one of his trips appeared serially in Harper's and Scribner's from 1893-1895. He also traveled in Turkey, Persia, and India, which resulted in the publication of From the Black Sea through Persia and India (1896). Weeks was a member of the Légion d'Honneur, France, an officer of the Order of St. Michael, Germany, and a member of the Munich Secession.

View all works →