EDMUND C. TARBELL

Painter and teacher Edmund Charles Tarbell was born in West Groton, Massachusetts, in 1862. He was apprenticed to a lithographer at the age of fifteen, and then began formal art studies with Otto Grundmann at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. He also studied at the Académie Julian in Paris with Boulanger and Lefebvre. Devoted to the importance of technique, Tarbell was considered the leader of the Boston Impressionists; his students were called “Tarbellites.” His works were primarily built around figures of women, shown in brilliantly colorful outdoor scenes. Around 1900, he began focusing on interior scenes, showing women reading, sewing, or in conversation. In these works, the handling of light and color recall Vermeer. In 1919, thanks to his well-crafted portraits, he was chosen by the National Committee to create a pictorial record of Allied leaders of World War I. He painted Presidents Wilson and Hoover, among others. He taught at the Museum School in Boston from 1889-1912 and at the Corcoran School of Art from 1917-1922. He died in 1938. His work is displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Worcester Art Museum, the War Department in Washington, and the State House in Boston, to name a few.