Edwin Lord Weeks (1849 - 1903) American Watercolor on Paper Measure 3 1/2"in H x 5 3/4"in W and 6 1/2"in H x 8 1/2"in W with frame Known for: Genre-exotic views and architectural paintings-Orientalist. Biography: Edwin Lord Weeks was born near Boston and educated in Boston and Newton public schools, although he spent very of his adult life outside the United States. His artistic career began in 1869 with a sketching trip to Florida, then on to Surinam and other destinations in South America. Returning to Massachusetts, he for a short time painted landscapes and historical pictures in Boston. Leaving Boston, he went to Paris where he studied with Leon Bonnat, and also under Jean-Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Weeks, like Gerome, was interested in Oriental subject matter, and as a student traveled to North Africa, Spain, and the Middle East. As well as being a painter, photographer, and illustrator, Weeks was also a writer. Between 1893 and 1895, illustrated accounts of his many travels appeared in Harpers and Scribners magazines, later appearing in book form as From the Black Sea through Persia and India in 1896. After the 1890s, not much is known of Weeks work except for Three Beggars of Cordova, which is at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It seems to demonstrate a return to his painterly style of the 1879s. He received much recognition during his international career, and he belonged to several art organizations including the Boston Art Club and the Paris Society of American Painters.