Pan Cogito Applauds The Upcoming National Gallery Of Art's Complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle By The ASQ But Still Wonders At The Picture ...

[Click on image for enlargement.]

American String Quartet

January 2, 2011 at 6:30PM

West Building Main Floor, West Garden Court, National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

Music by Beethoven

First concert in a free series of the complete Beethoven string quartets

*



[Click on image to enlarge detail.]

American Masterpieces: The American String Quartet champions a dozen quartets by American composers (Essay by ASQ violist Daniel Avshalomov)

Martin Edgar Ferrill

Country Dance, 1883

Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
1971.83.2

"Martin Edgar Ferrill was born in 1836 or 1837 to Matthew and Eliza Ferrill, natives of Ireland who had come to the United States before 1835 and settled in the northern division of Troy, New York, known as Lansingburgh. Lansingburgh was Ferrill's birthplace and remained his home throughout his life. On 25 March 1857 he married Delia Adams, the daughter of a local farmer. They had two children, but neither survived past early childhood. Their daughter's death at the age of three in 1863 is recorded in New York City vital statistics, which suggests that the family had traveled there in or by that year. In Lansingburgh, the Ferrills lived in an early colonial home which had formerly served as a stagecoach stop and is still standing. Martin died in this house on 17 February 1897 and was buried in nearby Oakwood Cemetery.

Little is known about Ferrill's artistic career. In Troy directories he was listed for most of his life as a brush maker, his father's trade. Later in his life his profession was recorded as "agent," a term of unknown meaning. Ferrill's death certificate gives his occupation as "artist," but it is not known just when he took up painting. ..."

Header, detail, and text credit: Copyright © 2010 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.