Portrait Painter. Against the objections of his Quaker parents, Benoni Burdeau Irwin moved to Toronto where he spent all his spare time copying art from the collection of the educational museum at the Toronto Normal School. He studied art at the National Academy in New York City. One of his school projects, a chalk study of wrestlers, was exhibited in the 1866 annual exhibition which was an unusual honor for a student. He also studied in Rome and in Paris under Emile-August Carolus-Duran. He was a regular contributor to Academy exhibitions in New York and executed a number of portraits of famous people including Frederic Remington, John Henry Clifford (36434857) Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Joshua A. Norton, also known as His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, self-proclaimed "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico" as well as many other more ordinary or less famous people. He was a close friend of John Muir. He died in 1896 when he lost his balance and fell into Lake Waumgumbaug, Connecticut while taking photographs of a sunset from a boat near his summer home.
Portrait Painter. Against the objections of his Quaker parents, Benoni Burdeau Irwin moved to Toronto where he spent all his spare time copying art from the collection of the educational museum at the Toronto Normal School. He studied art at the National Academy in New York City. One of his school projects, a chalk study of wrestlers, was exhibited in the 1866 annual exhibition which was an unusual honor for a student. He also studied in Rome and in Paris under Emile-August Carolus-Duran. He was a regular contributor to Academy exhibitions in New York and executed a number of portraits of famous people including Frederic Remington, John Henry Clifford (36434857) Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Joshua A. Norton, also known as His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, self-proclaimed "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico" as well as many other more ordinary or less famous people. He was a close friend of John Muir. He died in 1896 when he lost his balance and fell into Lake Waumgumbaug, Connecticut while taking photographs of a sunset from a boat near his summer home.
Bio by: RosalieAnn
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