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American Impressionism 2014-15
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Collection Info
Terra loans to Une nouvelle lumière : les américains face à l’impressionnisme, Musée des impressionnismes Giverny: March 28–June 29, 2014; American Impressionism: a New Vision, 1880-1900, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, July 19–October 19, 2014; Impresionismo Americano, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, November 4, 2014–February 1, 2015
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Edmund C. Tarbell
Date: 1891
Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number: 1999.141
Text Entries: A skilled portraitist, a popular teacher at Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts from 1889 to 1912, and an innovative interpreter of genteel subjects, Edmund Tarbell was considered the leader of the Boston artists. Apprenticed to a lithographer, Tarbell enrolled at Boston's Museum School in 1879, later joining his friends Frank Benson and Robert Reid for studies at the Académie Julian from 1884 to 1886. Termed a "Modern Vermeer" for his manipulation of light and atmosphere in a confined interior space; Tarbell's early interpretation of impressionism was replaced by a decidedly conservative style. As one of the principal members of The Ten, Tarbell's achieved broad exposure that contributed significantly to his national reputation.
In the Orchard is the opus of Tarbell 's impressionistic aspirations; he balanced a precisely rendered composition and defined figures with intense colors and broken brushwork. The emphasis on the painting's life-sized subjects-members of Tarbell's family-exemplifies Boston's distinctive school of impressionism that revolved around the figure in a landscape. The painting received rave reviews when exhibited in Boston, New York, at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and at The Ten's annual show a decade later.