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Edward Middleton Manigault (June 14, 1887 – August 31, 1922) was aCanadian-bornAmericanModernist painter.[1]
Manigault was born inLondon, Ontario, on June 14, 1887.[2] His parents were Americans originally fromSouth Carolina who had settled inLondon, Ontario after theCivil War.[2][1] Encouraged in art from an early age, he was commissioned at the age of 18 by the city of London to make renderings of public buildings for reproduction as postcards (examples of his early work are inMuseum London, Ontario).[3][4]
Manigault moved toNew York City in 1905 and enrolled in classes at theNew York School of Art[2] where he studied underRobert Henri andKenneth Hayes Miller, alongside classmates such asEdward Hopper,George Bellows, andRockwell Kent.[5] By 1909, he had moved away fromRealism and had begun producing paintings in aPost-Impressionism style. In that year he first exhibited his work in New York, and in 1910 he participated in the Exhibition of Independent Artists, organized by Henri.[2] In the spring of 1912, he traveled through England and France. In 1913, his work was included in theArmory Show.[1] In 1914, he staged a critically acclaimed one-man show at the Charles Daniel Gallery.[2][1] His art was purchased by such notable collectors asJ. Paul Getty andArthur Jerome Eddy.[4]
Despite being emotionally unstable and prone to episodes of depression, Manigault volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver with theBritish Expeditionary Force in 1915, displaying his spontaneity in marrying Gertrude Buffington Phillips just two days before he shipped out, whereupon he served as an ambulance driver in Flanders from April to November 1915.[2][5] In November, he received a medical discharge after being exposed tomustard gas. Having suffered a nervous breakdown, he was deemed “incapacitated for service", and his health would continue to decline for the remainder of his life.[4][5]
Back in the United States, he spent some time living in the utopian community ofOneida, New York. In 1919 he and his wife resettled in theEcho Park district ofLos Angeles, California.[4] Later the same year, Manigault travelled without his wife toSan Francisco and began working in aCubist style, but, displeased with the results of this departure from his typical work, he destroyed nearly two hundred of his own paintings. At around this time in his life, Manigault had begun to practicefasting, in the hopes that starvation and meditation would allow him “to approach the spiritual plane and see colors not perceptible to the physical eye.” Ignoring the entreaties of his friends and family, in August 1922, Manigault fasted for two weeks, his health rapidly declining before he was admitted to the hospital on the 24th, where he died one week later, ofstarvation andneurasthenia, at the age of thirty-five.[4][5]
Manigault worked in a wide range of styles following the war, experimenting in abstract and Cubist styles. He found these styles unsatisfying and destroyed most of his paintings.[2] He was inspired by the example of American modernists, includingWilliam andMarguerite Zorach. Manigault subsequently became inspired by theArts and Crafts Movement, and began to produce decorative works, including ceramics and furniture.[4] He was also commissioned byOneida Limited to design flatware.[4]
Manigault is believed to have destroyed as many as two hundred of his paintings; consequently, few paintings by Manigault survive.[2] His work notebooks cover the years from 1906 to 1919.[2] Interest was renewed in his work in 1946, and his paintings were included in the exhibition "Pioneers of Modern Art in America 1903-1918" at theWhitney Museum of American Art that year.[6][2] His work is in the permanent collections of theColumbus Museum of Art inColumbus, Ohio, theGibbes Museum of Art inCharleston, South Carolina, theMint Museum inCharlotte, NC, andMuseum London, in Ontario, Canada[3]
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