View of Flax Pond, Old Fields

Edward Lange (ca. 1846- 1912) was born in Germany and emigrated to New York with his family sometime in the 1860's. By 1870 Lange and his wife, Susan Denton of Brooklyn, were living in Elwood, Long Island. He was probably self taught but influenced by artists and prints produced by them during the 1860's and 1870's including James Bard, Jurgen Fredrick Huge, Currier and Ives, George Durrie and Louis Prang. He can be credited with recording the landscape and townscape of Long Island before its period of tremendous growth in the 1880's. His attention to detail gives insight into the architecture, daily life, business activities and agriculture of rural Long Island. His watercolors and drawings capture both the bucolic and nostalgic character of Long Island on the cusp of change and the coming of the iron horse which stimulated business and tourism.