Unveiling Virtue: Edwin Austin Abbey’s Ideal Knighthood of Sir Galahad

The Quest and Achievement of the Holy Grail by Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911) consists of fifteen canvases mounted as a continuous frieze around the Boston Public Library’s book delivery room. I argue Sir Galahad’s quest, as a moral paragon presented at the Boston Public Library in 1902, emphasizes virtue as the essential condition for a male citizen during a period of political corruption and turmoil in the United States. Before the final installation, panels were exhibited in Chicago (at the World’s Columbian Exposition), London, New York, and Paris to critical acclaim. The ninth panel, The Maidens Welcome Sir Galahad, depicts the pious knight freeing women from captivity. Abbey honors poet Heinrich von dem Türlin’s account that asserted the hero was able to prevail in this trial on his own as vindication of his pure heart. This esoteric episode from the legend exemplifies how Abbey studied numerous European resources, synthesizing historical fact, myth, and artistry to lure the attention of his audience. My paper will discuss new material I have discovered within the Yale University Art Gallery collection from Abbey’s sketchbook drawings, pastel studies, and oil sketches that document changes the artist made to the composition, resulting in the final pose of Sir Galahad turning away from the audience. The idealism embodied in the mural supports the belief that only with heightened morality could American society mend divisions of poverty, class, and race at the dawn of the twentieth century.