An Appreciation:
Edmund Charles Tarbell

 Edmund C. Tarbell was a successful American Impressionist, illustrator and portraitist in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. He had a significant influence on the Boston art world both through his painting and as a teacher of art.

Tarbell was born on April 26, 1862 in West Groton, Massachusetts. His father died while serving in the Civil War and his mother remarried. As a result, Edmund and his sister were raised by his paternal grandparents in the suburbs of Boston.

Tarbell displayed an early interest in art. He took evening art lessons at the Massachusetts Normal School. At 15, he was apprenticed to the Forbes Lithographic Company.

When he was 18, Tarbell enrolled in the Museum School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. There he met fellow artists Frank W. Benson and Robert Reid.

In 1883, Tarbell, Benson and Reid left to study in Europe. They enrolled in the Academie Julian in Paris, which taught a rigorous traditional approach to art.

At the same time, however, new artistic styles were developing in Paris. By this point, the Impressionists who had been scorned just a few years before were being taken seriously and were having an influence on young artists.

Tarball also copied the works of the Old Masters in the Louvre. He also studied the Old Masters on a trip that he and Benson took through Italy, Beligum and Germany. Tarbell was especially impressed by the work of Johannes Vermeer. He returned to the United States in 1886.

Combining the threads of his art education, Tarbell developed a unique style that combined academic figure drawing, the composition of Old Masters such as Vermeer and the palette of the Impressionists. His works often depict figures in genteel domestic settings utilizing Impressionistic colors. Interested in American antiques well before they became popular, Tarbell often included various pieces of old New England furniture and memorbilia in his paintings.

In addition to painting domestic scenes, Tarbell became an accomplished portraitist. He was commissioned to paint portraits of world leaders such as Woodrow Wilson and business tyocoons such as Henry Clay Frick.

While carrying on a successful practice as an artist and an illustrator, Tarbell was also a highly respected art teacher. He began teaching in 1888 at the Boston Museum School. Shortly thereafter, Tarbell became the head of the painting department. His students became such devoted followers that they were nicknamed “The Tarbellites.”  He influenced not only the art that was being produced in Boston but also what art was acceptable in Boston.

In 1912, however, the Museum Huger Elliot to reorganize the school. He was severely critical of Tarbell and lectured him on how to teach and how to paint. This led to Tarbell and his friend Benson, who was also an instructor, to resign from the school.

With the aim of promoting art in Boston, Tarbell and Benson, with financial help from Boston Brahmin and artist Lilla Cabot Perry, founded the Guild of Boston Artists in 1914, Tarbell remained its president until 1924.

Meanwhile, in 1918, Tarbell was appointed as principal of the art school of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Although he spent much of his time abroad and working on portrait commissions, Tarbell held this post until 1926.

By that time, the Museum of Fine Arts had decided that it wanted Tarbell back at the Museum School and appointed him as head of the Advisory Council in 1925. Long a believer in promoting American art, Tarbell, once again accompanied by Benson, reigned again when the Museum took steps to bring English artists to Boston to teach.

Tarbell was no stranger to protest. Tarbell was a founding member of The Ten American Painters. It was created in 1898, in protest of the conservative nature of the American art establishment and in particular, the Society of American Artists. In addition to Tarbell, the members included Benson, Reid, J. Alden Weir, John Twachtman, Childe Hassam, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Edward Simmons, Joseph R. DeCamp, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Abbott Handerson Thayer and after Thayer's death, William Merritt Chase. Although established artists, they wanted to form a group that was more sympathetic to new art forms such as Impressionism. They exhibited together in various American cities for some 20 years.

Tarbell enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. As above, he was a successful artist and teacher. In addition, his wife Emeline Arnold Souther whom he married in 1888, was from a prominent Massachusetts family. In 1905, they bought a summer home in New Castle, New Hampshire. Over the years, it tripled in size and Tarbell built a studio nearby. Both were filled with New England antiques that the couple collected. Tarbell retired to New Castle in 1926, where he died in 1938.

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Above: "Mother and Child in a Boat"

Below: "In the Orchard."

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Above:  Tarbell's portrait of French General Foch.

Below: "View of the Piscataqua" - a rare Tarbell landscape without figures. 

Above: "Preparing for the Matinee."

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Artist appreciation - Edmund Charles Tarbell