The Legend Lives On: The Two Edmunds
Edmund Lewandowski's Enduring Fascination with the SS Edmund Fitzgerald
Launching of the Edmund Fitzgerald (1958) by unknownGrohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering
For seventeen years following her launch in 1958, the Big Fitz made nearly 750 trips across the inland seas, covering over one million miles and regularly setting records for freight moved in a single trip as well as over the course of a season. She was everything her owners and operators could have hoped for and made an indelible mark on maritime lore, most notably on that fateful night, when ship and crew fell victim to the power of Lake Superior and its unpredictable weather patterns.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald (1959) by Edmund LewandowskiGrohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering
On February 1st, 1957,
then-President of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Mr. Edmund Fitzgerald, commissioned Great Lakes Engineering Works of Ecorse-River Rouge, Michigan to build what was, at the time, the largest vessel to ever travel the Great Lakes.
Coupled with this project was a second commission for Milwaukee’s premier industrial painter, Edmund Lewandowski, to create a series of three paintings: two documenting the construction, and a third of the completed craft on the water.
As a commission, the set was a bit of a departure from Lewandowski’s strictly Precisionist style, but nonetheless it featured a number of characteristics emblematic of the artist. He spent a great deal of time at River Rouge laying the foundation of the series, but true to his modern approach, he also worked from the numerous photographs he made while on-site.
Construction of the Edmund Fitzgerald--Bow Framing (1959) by Edmund LewandowskiGrohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering
This series began with Construction of the Edmund Fitzgerald—Bow Framing, a painting of the laying of the keel and framing of the giant vessel.
This painting is emblematic of Lewandowski’s Precisionist style but adds a human element. Workers climb a scaffold and fit frame members together into place.
Construction of the Edmund Fitzgerald--Cargo Hold (1959) by Edmund LewandowskiGrohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering
Lewandowski then produced the Construction of the Edmund Fitzgerald—Cargo Hold, a work showcasing the monumentality of the giant hull and its capacity.
As a crane lowers a giant section of steel flanking in place, the workers’ role is diminished as they are dwarfed by the massive operation.
Including a completed ship on the left allowed the artist to further reference the significance of scale in building the grandest, sturdiest ship to have traveled the Great Lakes.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald (1959) by Edmund LewandowskiGrohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering
While the first two paintings in the series were created from studies on-site with supplementary photographs informing the finished works, this painting was perhaps completed when the Fitzgerald was laid up at Jones Island waiting out the steel strike of the summer of 1959.
Edmund Fitzgerald Ship (1959) by unknownGrohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering
One might otherwise speculate that this work was also created from a photograph, as it is nearly identical to an image shot in July 1959, when the ore carrier paid her only visit to her home port of Milwaukee.
If so, the artist removed the cables and rigging from the foreground and added Hulett ore unloaders behind the vessel as an allusion to its primary job in traversing the Great Lakes.
Three Ships (20th century) by Edmund LewandowskiGrohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering
Edmund Lewandowski remained fascinated
with Great Lakes maritime industry throughout his career.
While his series depicting the Edmund Fitzgerald are among his most famous, he painted many less-known ore freighters and other ships that sailed these "inland seas."
But, much like any Great Lakes Midwesterner, Edmund Lewandowski never forgot the Edmund Fitzgerald. And perhaps because of the time he spent observing her construction, the ship remained in his mind.
Painted in 1960, Lewandowski's abstract Structural Steel Systems clearly draws on his memories of the shipyards of Michigan.
This exploration of geometry and industry is based on observations of the construction of the Edmund Fitzgerald, but such detextualization underscores how intertwined Edmund Lewandowski had become with the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
Edmund Fitzgerald (1987) by Edmund LewandowskiGrohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering
This deck view of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is Edmund Lewandowski's last painting of the freighter.
This piece, done in his signature Precisionist style is an homage.
Lewandowski looks back on his years-long connection to the ship more than a decade after her untimely and tragic wreck.
Some images courtesy of the Collection of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
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