Artist
Centurion, 1895–1898
Born 29 October 1857 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Died 23 April 1898 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Buried Woodlawn Cemetery
, Bronx, New York
Proposed by Francis C. Jones, Loyall Farragut, and Charles A. Platt
Elected 7 December 1895 at age thirty-eight
Century Memorial
There was a tender feeling of regard for Joe Evans on the part of all his friends during his life, and his death was sincerely mourned. Always a sufferer, he never allowed his physical weakness to curb his aspirations and ambitions, or to draw from him a word of complaint. A bright and happy nature and a genius for friendship were his characteristics, and the words of Aristotle were peculiarly applicable to him—
“Suffering becomes beautiful when any one bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness of mind.”
He was an artist of acknowledged excellence, a pupil of Gérôme, served for several terms as president of the Art Students’ League and as president of the Society of American Artists. He gave his time and his service up to the full limit of his strength to public work, and was ever foremost in the advancement of municipal reform. He had a thoughtful nature, a quaint wit and the sweet fragrance of a crushed flower about him. Wherever taste, intelligence, manliness and a kind heart were appreciated there he found his friends, whose hearts are heavy now that he has joined
“Those holy ones and weakly,
Who the cross of suffering bore,
Folded their pale hands so meekly,
Spake with us on earth no more.”
Henry E. Howland
1899 Century Association Yearbook
