Edwin Evans
1860–1946 · American landscape painter and teacher
Edwin Evans (Lehi, Utah, 1860 - Los Angeles, 1946) was an American landscape painter and teacher. He matters because he was one of the painters sponsored in 1890 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to study in Paris, in preparation for decorating the nearly finished Salt Lake Temple.
Before committing to art, he worked as a railway telegraph operator and sketched as a hobby. Alonzo Hyde noticed his talent, encouraged him to study painting and offered financial support. This allowed him to train in Salt Lake City and later at the Académie Julian in Paris, where his main instructor was Albert Rigolot. On his return he painted murals and frescoes for the temple, consecrated in 1893, and later for the Cardston Alberta Temple and the Veterans' Hospital in Salt Lake City. His canvas Grain Fields, painted in France, received an Honorable Mention at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
In 1898 he became president of the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Utah, where he taught until 1919. His best-known student was LeConte Stewart. In his later years he returned to Paris, concentrated largely on watercolors and donated many of his paintings to Brigham Young University. A major retrospective of his work was held in 1941.