Edgar de Evia
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Edgar de Evia (July 30, 1910 – February 10, 2003) was a prominent American photographer, artist and author. Partner and mentor first of Robert DenningAD Designers ''Architectural Digest's January 2002 Special Collector's Edition Announces The New "AD 100" Top Interior Designers and Architects reproduced on their webpage [AD 100] and then of David McJonathan-Swarm from the mid 1960s until his death.
Family heritage
He was born in Mérida, Yucatán to an accomplished pianist Pauline Joutard, who was born in Paris, studied in Homberg and was later know as Miirrha Alhambra, and Domingo de Evia y Barbachano. His one great grandfather was Miguel Barbachano (1806 – 1859) a governor of Yucatán and his other paternal great grandfather was a physician with vast sisal plantations. During his youth, living in Mérida, they were one of the politically acitve, wealthy and socially prominent families.
Childhood in New York City
He moved with his family to New York City ca. 1915 where he was graduated from The Dalton School. A favorite of Helen Parkhurst, who would invite him to the country with Mrs. W. Murray Crane, both of whom took keen interest in his young fascination in Shakespeare. Miss Parkhurst introduced him to Belle da Costa Greene who let him work with original folios. His fascination with learning, literature, art and history, which lasted his entire life, are clear tributes to the influence in his early years of the Dalton Plan.
Career
After briefly working for the Associated Press he became the medical research assistant to noted homeopathic physician Dr. Guy Beckley Stearns. The doctor gave him his first camera, a Rolleiflex, and taught him to use it. Taking long walks together with their cameras in Central Park the doctor would explain that the camera did not have the brain to interpret the image,and that a photographer must learn to see and control what the lens would capture.Early in his career in photography he met the "Zizis" through whom he was introduced to Nicki de Gunzburg, who gave him his first assignment for Town & Country magazine.
He is best know for his Tissot-like effects using soft focus and diffusion. William A. Reedy, editor of APPLIED PHOTOGRAPHY, in a 1970 interview for the Eastman Kodak publication Studio Light/Commercial Camera, wrote he:
- "has been a photographic illustrator in New York City for many years. His work has helped sell automobiles, food, drink, furniture and countless other products. To fashion accounts he has been known as a fashion photographer, while food people think of him as a specialist in still life. While, in fact, he is a photographer, period. He applies his considerable talent and experience to whatever the problem at hand.""about Photography with Edgar de Evia" by William A. Reedy, p. 16 Studio Light/Commercial Camera v.2 no. 2 1970.
Automobiles
Early in his success he started to collect automobiles which fascinated him. His first was a Rolls-Royce and it was the salesman at Inskip Rolls in New York City that taught him to drive. This was followed by other Rolls-Royces, several Bugatti, a Mercedes and a Jaguar XK. It was a photograph of a 1937 Rolls-Royce, which had belonged to Barbara Hutton, with his partner Robert Denning pushing a girl in a swing that won the General Motors Body by Fisher account for whom he did many commercial advertising photographs in the early 1950s.Houses
For almost two decades his home and studios were on the top three floors of 867 Madison Avenue in the Rhinelander Mansion, now Ralph Lauren's Madison Avenue flagship store and in the country "Quiet Corner" on Hill Road in Greenwich, Connecticut, the former home of Clyde Fitch which also served as a location and set for many photographs. It was in this home that he took great pleasure in the early 1960s when his partner Robert Denning's relationship with Vincent Fourcade began and Denning & Fourcade would stay in New York City entertaining prospective clients at the Rhinelander Mansion. This led to the ultimate forming of Denning & Fourcade and the disolution of Edgar de Evia Associates."Robert Denning Dies at 78; Champion of Lavish Décor", by Mitchell Owens, Sep. 4, 2005, New York Times obituary The end of an empire and the last time that the Rhinelander Mansion would be largely a private home.
Later life
In 1988 New York Magazine published an entire issue on romance. His apartment at The Nottingham in Manhattan's Murray Hill section was featured as the most romantic apartment in New York City with a full page article and photograph.He continued to seize new knowledge with vigor his entire life. While his formal education ended at Dalton, he amassed an enormous library of books on almost every subject. He particularly enjoyed novels written between 1850–1930, Many of which he read three or four times, and to which he would add new perceptions to his notes on a sheet in the flyleaf of the book. His favorites included: G. K. Chesterton, Wilkie Collins, and E. Phillips Oppenheim. With the advent of the Internet he would spend hours researching both images and current perspectives.
Well into his eighties, he would mount his bicycle and ride all over the city on weekends with a backpack carrying his latest camera and take photographs that amused him. He developed an early interest in computers starting with the Commodore 64 followed by several PCs and finally several Power Macs. The ease of editing prose on the computer reawakened his interest in writing and during the last decade of the 20th century he wrote several novels, including soon to be published "My Father Came to America" and many short stories.
He died at 92 years of age at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City from pneumonia following a broken hip.
Models photographed
He photographed every top fashion model during the half century between 1940 and 1990. Including:
Edgar de Evia in the Living Room of his home in the Rhinelander Mansion.
- Lisa Fonssagrives
- Sunny Harnet
- Dovima
- Suzy Parker
- Maude Adams
- Wilhelmina
- Dorian Leigh
- Cheryl Tiegs
- Cindy Crawford
- Twiggy
Personalities photographed
He didn't photograph that many performers, socialites or other personalities except for editorial coverage. They are known to include:- Ethel Fogg (Mrs. William Brooks Clift) mother of Montgomery Clift
- Jean Marsh at Lutèce restaurant, British actress best known for creating the television series Upstairs, Downstairs
- Erik Rhodes, American film and Broadway singer and actor
- Nordstrom Sisters, American sister act, international cabaret singers
- Gloria Vanderbilt, and her Manhattan apartment for House & Garden.
Editorial photography
- Town & Country
- Vogue
- Architectural Digest
- Glamour
- Good Housekeeping
- House & Garden
- Parents
- Arts & Decoration
- Life
- Harper's Bazaar
- New York Magazine
Books
Books that have been illustrated with deEvia's photography include:
- Picture Cookbook by The Editors of LIFE, Mary Hamman, Editor, New York, NY: Time Incorporated, 1958. Second edition 1959, Third edition 1960.
Commercial photography
References
External links
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