Edmund Brewster

English, 1784–fl. 1824

Brewster was probably English and likely had academic training. In 1819, he won acclaim in New Orleans by painting a copy of Gilbert Stuart's Lansdowne portrait of George Washington, commissioned to hang in the New Orleans City Council session hall. The same year, he held an exhibition of paintings at Maspero's Coffee House. Brewster was the first artist to receive an extended review in the press in New Orleans, and also the first to hold a documented exhibition. He was in Philadelphia in 1818, and again from 1828 through 1849. Brewster returned to New Orleans each winter between 1819 and 1824. His most important commission was a large-format painting of Padre Antonio de Sedella, better known as Père Antoine, former Grand Inquisitor and parish priest at St. Louis Cathedral. From this, Brewster made a print—among the first engraved portraits made in New Orleans.