Exhibition of Elihu Vedder’s artwork in 1982
We have received an enquiry concerning an exhibition of Rubaiyat artwork at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in the early 1980’s, probably 1982. Here is the enquiry.
<< … years ago, I saw an exhibition of Vedder’s Rubaiyat Paintings at Smithsonian American Art in, I think, 1982, and was quite impressed. I also inherited a 1st Ed of the Vedder Rubaiyat from my grandfather. So, in the years since I’ve wondered if any publisher has issued a color reproduction of those paintings I saw at SAAM, so many years ago? >>
In a later communication, our correspondent, Richard Banning, questions his own memory of whether the exhibition in 1982 was actually of the Vedder illustrations, though in our view this seems quite feasible since SAAM does hold some, perhaps all, of the original artwork. So we have two queries for blog readers. Please comment below if you can help with answers.
First, does anyone have more information about an exhibition of Rubaiyat illustrations at SAAM sometime around 1982? It would be great to locate a catalogue from this.
Second, has there ever been an edition of the Rubaiyat with colour versions of the Vedder illustrations? The image above shows some Vedder artwork for the Rubaiyat, that clearly has colour. This is in the SAAM collection, but is dated slightly later than the original edition of Vedder’s illustrations. Can anyone throw light on this?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Omar Khayyam Rubaiyat 
Roger Paas comments as follows.
I suggest that the exhibition in question might be the one covered by no. 5233 in my catalog: Perceptions and Evocations: The Art of Elihu Vedder, ed. Regina Soria, Joshua Taylor et al. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979.
Rick, are you able to find a copy of this book and see whether the content fits what you remember?
Bob Forrest has sent the following further comment.
I don’t know if your correspondent is familiar with the book “Perceptions and Evocations: the Art of Elihu Vedder”, various authors, published by the Smithsonian, 1979 – an excellent book. If not familiar with it, I suggest he gets a copy. I believe that “The Cup of Death” oil painting was done after the corresponding Rubaiyat drawing, but I am not at all sure of that. As for exhibitions, the book (p.240) mentions two exhibition catalogues, one in the Graham Gallery, New York, November 19 – December 14 1974 and the other at Glen Falls, New York, June 28 – August 31 1975 – a copy of the latter is on Abe right now – in fact, it is the only Vedder exhibition catalogue on there at the moment, The date is earlier than your correspondent’s putative date, but it might be worth looking at.