"Edwin Harleston"[March 14,1882-1931]

He was one of eight children,his daddy was a rice planter,a sea

captain,and a funeral home owner.Edwin received a scholarship to study at the Avery Normal Institute in Charleston and graduated valedictorian in 1900.For four years he attended Atlanta University where he played football and sang in a quartet.In 1905,he relocated to Boston to attend the art school of the Boston Museum of Fine Art.
There Edwin studied under William Paxton & Frank Benson until 1913.
The seven year course was formed under the Beaux Arts tradition and formed the foundation of his style.Edwin reluctantly returned to the South Carolina to help in his daddy's funeral home.It was during this time that he became active in local civic rights groups and eventually became president of the newly formed Charleston South Carolina branch of the NAACP.He led an effort that soon forced the public school system to hire African American teachers.In 1920 Edwin married Elise Forrest a photographer and two years later they opened a studio,which produced both of their works.
Influenced by much of her work,he developed a highly realistic and academic technique of portraiture;many of his works were commissioned.A few of his subjects were the president of Atlanta University ,philanthropist-Pierre S.DuPont and the president of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.Edwin other painting include The Bible Student 1924,and Miss Bailey with the African Shawl 1930.At the request of Aaron Douglass,he assisted in in painting murals for Fisk University that depicted a panoramic view of African American History from slavery onward.This work was complete in 1931 the year that he died.Shortly before his death  Edwin received the Alain Locke Prize for portrait painting for his work.The Old Servant at an exhibition of the Harmon foundation.