Torso

Edward Godwin was the son of the Aesthetic movement architect and designer Edward William Godwin and his second wife, Beatrix Birnie Philip. Following the death of E W Godwin Beatrix married James McNeill Whistler who thus became Edward Godwin’s stepfather. Edward studied at a private boarding school in Caterham, presumably at Whistler’s expense. Whistler asked Alfred Stevens, possibly the Belgian painter, Alfred Emile-Leopold Stevens to supervise Edward’s education. In 1901, Edward was living with his grandmother, Frances Birnie Philip, next door to Whistler at 36 Tite Street. He exhibited a number of times at the Royal Academy between 1905-1921. Godwin’s know works include the bronze angels on Whistler’s tomb in the graveyard of St Nicholas’s Church, Chiswick, and a portrait bust of Ronald Murray Philip (his uncle).