Earl Brewster

Who was Earl Brewster?

Earl Henry Brewster was an American painter, writer, and scholar, best known today for his close friendship with D.H. Lawrence, and for his compilation of the life of the Buddha, first published in 1926 and still in print. He was married to Achsah Barlow Brewster, also an artist.

Brewster was born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in 1878. After studying art at the Cleveland School of Art, he moved to New York, where he attended the Art Students League of New York and the New York School of Art, working with William Merritt Chase and Frank Vincent DuMond. While living in New York, Brewster exhibited his paintings at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Boston Art Club, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and in New York City at the Society of American Artists, "28th Annual Exhibition," the National Academy of Design and the New York School of Art. One of his paintings, The Grey Harbor, was purchased by artist William Merritt Chase; another was later acquired by the Hillyer Gallery at Smith College.

In 1904 a fellow art student, the poet Vachel Lindsay, introduced Brewster to his future wife, Achsah Barlow, herself a painter, after noticing her resemblance to an imaginary portrait Earl had painted for a magazine cover. The two were married in 1910 and immediately moved to Italy. Except for a brief visit in 1923, they never again returned to the United States. Their daughter, Harwood, was born in Paris in 1912. The Brewsters spent nearly twenty years in southern Italy, with travels to Greece, France, Ceylon and India. After six years in southern France, they moved in 1935 to Crank's Ridge in Almora, Uttar Pradesh, India.