Ethel Edwards

Ethel Edwards (1914– 1999) was an American painter, collage artist, illustrator, and muralist. She is known for her New Deal murals.

Education In 1933 she entered Newcomb College in New Orleans where she studied with Xavier Gonzalez. She married Gonzales in 1936 in Alpine, Texas, where he had conducted a summer art colony for several years.

Career They continued the summer art school until 1936 when Xavier took a leave of absence to live in France. Returning to Alpine with her husband in late 1937, Edwards won a national competition to paint a post office mural, Afternoon on a Texas Ranch, for Lampasas, Texas. In 1942 she completed a mural, Life on the Lake for the post office in Lake Providence, Louisiana.

During the World War II war years Edwards and Gonzales moved to New York City where they both taught at the Art Students League and she did fashion illustrations for Town & Country and Fortune magazines. In 1957 Edwards was the recipient of a MacDowell fellowship.

Edwards died on January 24, 1999, in New York City.

Works

Her papers can be found in the Archives of American Art in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and the United States Bureau of Reclamation.