Garrett was born in Albany, New York on October 19, 1853. While little is known of his initial art education, Garrett rose through the ranks to become a distinguished member of the Boston Art Club and the Copley Society of Art, and was an acquaintance and colleague of renowned impressionist artist Childe Hassam. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris under Gustave Boulanger, Jules Lefebvre, John Paul Laurens, and Hector Leroux. After residing in Paris for approximately five years, he returned to America to establish a successful studio in Boston.
His first original wood engraving was created in 1879 under the tutelage of Robert Swain Gifford. His first original prints specialized in both architectural views and landscapes, with his later etchings mostly featuring areas around Boston.
Garrett provided the chief influence for Childe Hassam's first study trip to Europe in July 1883. On June 30, 1883, Garrett and Hassam sailed to Europe aboard the SS Anchoria, then travelled for several months throughout Great Britain, The Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain studying paintings from the old masters and creating watercolors of the European countryside. In late August 1883, both Garrett and Hassam sailed aboard the SS Alsatia to several Spanish ports before crossing the Atlantic back home.
After they both returned to Boston, Garrett resumed his illustration work for various publishers, which was very much in demand, keeping him from spending energy on his watercolors. During this time, Garrett worked at a studio located at 12 West Street in Boston, which he shared with Hassam and fellow-artist Charles Henry Turner.
In 1884, Garrett exhibited two watercolors at the Pennsylvania Academy ("A Street in Granada" and "El Mirador de la Reina, Alhambra") in 1884. He also exhibited "A Street in Granada" at the "Third Annual Exhibition of the Paint and Clay Club," which was held at the Gallery of the Boston Art Club in March 1884.
During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Edmund Garrett's paintings and etchings were widely exhibited throughout the United States and in France at the Paris Salon.
During his lifetime, Garrett was a prolific illustrator of many books and publications, including various books of poetry by Tennyson, Keats, and Schiller; the Legends of King Arthur; Austen's Pride & Prejudice; Marie Louise de la Ramée's (Ouida's) A Dog of Flanders; stories by Alexandre Dumas; various books of Elizabethan and Victorian songs; and other books by Longfellow, Sir Walter Scott, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Hawthorne, among others.
Today, Garrett's works adorn the walls of the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the New York Public Library, the Boston Public Library, and the Massachusetts State House. Other works appear in collections at the Public Library in Winchester, Mass; Calumet Club (Boston, Mass.), Brookside Library; Conant Memorial Church; and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
Garrett died in Needham, Massachusetts on April 2, 1929.
The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1880
Song of the Bell by Friedrich Schiller, 1882
Come into the Garden, Maud by Alfred Tennyson, 1883
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, 1883
Bingen on the Rhine by Caroline E.S. Norton, 1883
Lady Clare by Alfred Tennyson, 1884
Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats, 1885
Favorite Poems and the High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire 1571 by Jean Ingelow, 1886
Pilgrims of the Night collected and Illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett, 1887
Ballads About Authors by Harriet Spofford, 1887
The Closing Scene by Thomas Buchanan Read, 1887
Christmas in the Olden Time by Sir Walter Scott, 1887
Ballads of Romance & History by Susan Coolidge, et al., 1887
Enoch Arden by Alfred Tennyson, 1888
Fairy Lilian & Other Poems by Alfred Tennyson, 1888
From Greenland's Icy Mountains by Bishop Heber, 1889
Rab and His Friends by John Brown, 1890
Annie & Willie's Prayer by Sophie P. Snow, 1890
The Blind Musician by Vladimir Korolenko, 1890
Elizabethan Songs in Honour of Love And Beautie, Compiled and Illustrated by Edmund Henry Garrett, 1891
Roses of Romance from the Poems of John Keats, Selected and Illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett, 1891
Flowers of Fancy by Percy Shelley, 1891
Ailes d'Alouette by F.W. Bourdillon, 1891
The Novels of Jame Austen (Volumes 1 through 6) by Jane Austen, 1892
Bimbi, Stories for Children by Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé), 1892
Poems by William Wordsworth, edited by Matthew Arnold, 1892
Echoes from the Sabine Farm by Eugene & Rowell Martin Field, 1893
Yanko the Musician & Other Stories by Henryk Sienkiewicz, 1893
Three Heroines of New England Romance by Harriet P. Spofford, 1894
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë, 1895
Victorian Songs: Lyrics of the Affections and Nature, Edited and Illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett, 1895
Carmen: A Memoir by Prosper Mérimée, 1896
Camilla: A Novel by Richert Von Koch, 1896
Romances and Reality of the Puritan Coast by Edmund H. Garrett, 1897
Two Little Wooden Shoes: A Story by Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé), 1897
Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz, 1897
Hypatia or New Foes with Old Faces by Charle Kingsley and Edmund H. Garrett, 1897
The She-Wolves Of Machecoul; A Romance Of The Last Vendee; to which is added The Corsican Brothers; in two volumes. The Romances of Alexandre Dumas: volumes forty-four, and forty-five by Alexandre Dumas, 1897
Twenty Years After; A Romance Of The Regency Of Anne Of Austria, in two volumes. The Romances of Alexandre Dumas: volumes eighteen, and nineteen by Alexandre Dumas, 1897
The Gray House of the Quarries" by Mary Harriott Norris, 1898
The Nurnberg Stove by Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé), 1898
An Account of Anne Bradstreet, The Puritan Poetess & Kindred Topics edited by Colonel Luther Caldwell, 1898
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Khayyam Omar, 1898
By the Fireside; A Book of Good Stories for Young People Illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett, 1898
Backlog Studies by Charles Dudley Warner, 1899
The Hunter Cats by Helen Jackson, 1899
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, 1899
Notes of Travel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1900
Legends of King Arthur and His Court by Frances Nimmo Greene, 1901
The Pilgrim Shore of the Massachusetts Coast by Edmund H. Garrett, 1902
Celebrated Crimes by Alexandre Dumas, 1902
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes & Other Poems by F.W. Bourdillon, 1903
Bookplates Selected from the Works of Edmund H. Garrett, and a Notice of Them by Wililam Howe Downes, 1904
Vicomte de Bragelonne (Vol. III) by Alexandre Dumas, 1904
Stories from Famous Ballads by Grace Greenwood (Sara Jane Lippincott) and edited by Caroline Burnite, 1906
Snow-Bound: A Writers Idyl by John Greenleaf Whittier, 1906. (Reprinted in 2007)
Venetian Life by William Dean Howells, 1907
A Dog of Flanders & Other Stories by Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé), 1910
Travelers Five Along Life's Highway: Jimmy, Gideon Wiggan, The Clown, Wexley Snathers, Bap. Sloan by Annie Fellows Johnson, 1911
The Sword of Bussy, or the Word of a Gentleman by Robert Neilson Stephens and Herman Nickerson, 1912
The Island of Beautiful Things: A Romance of the South by Will Allen Dromgoole, 1912
John O'Partletts: A Tale of Strife and Courage by Jean Edgerton Hovey, 1913
Moufflou and Other Stories by Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé), 1910
A Flower of Monterey (A Romance of the Californias) by Katherine B. Hamill, 1921
A Street in Granada
Boats at Venice
Study of a Chateau Gateway
March in New England
Early Spring, Milton Meadows
Street in Denia, Spain
Rock of Dumbarton
