Impressionism

Introduction

The Blue Veil, is a painting done by Edmund Charles Tarbell in the year in 1898 (See figure 1). Tarbell depicts the side profile of an unknown woman donning an ornate hat upon coils of auburn hair, adorned precariously by a thin blue veil billowing by an absent gust of wind. Unable to clearly see the woman's face, the painting is antithetical compared to a portrait of the traditional sense. Historically, the subject matter of portraits were prominently commissions by wealthy figures who through painting, could have their statuses such as wealth, prowess, beauty and taste immortalized ("Portrait" Tate). What is of particular interest to me, and will be the subject of this essay, is the broader context of the painting. The Blue Veil is a symbol representative of a step away from the then prevailing styles of Neoclassicism and Romanticism, including that of dramatic portraiture, and instead an embrace of and adaptation to the emerging Impressionistic aesthetic of the 19th century.  Impressionism would come to produce, or be produced by, the likes of immortal titans not only localized to Europe, such as Claude Monet, but across the globe with figures such as Tarbell and John Singer Sargent in the US and Hokusai in Japan. 

Fig.1 Tarbell, Edmund Charles. The Blue Veil (1898). Oil on canvas. De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA. https://art.famsf.org/edmund-charles-tarbell/blue-veil-194226

Description

The woman portrayed in The Blue Veil  dons a simple and pale yellow dress contrasting with her ostentatious and vibrant hat which has a stunning, translucent blue-violet veil sweeping dramatically across to the lower left of the canvas. Painted from the bust up, she, her hat and the veil are the sole occupants of the painting, her veil dominating the viewer's attention and occupying more than two-thirds of the canvas. Her hat is composed of a protruding pearl-white feather with a smear of deep yellow at its point of divergence from the hat, a semi-circular emerald green mass nearing the center, and an effortlessly curved yellow base, all perfectly atop the woman's auburn brown hair which is effortlessly tucked into an updo. The background of the painting is ambiguous, a muted blue with hints of yellow mimicking its forefront subject matter. The varied brushwork of the painting creates the distinction between the woman's placid and tranquil face and the backdrop. Tarbell laid the paint thinly and created a smoothing effect on and around the woman's face as he painted the veil, creating its lightness and transparency. Laid thickly on subjects such as the hat and some of the background, the impasto is stark compared to its smooth counterparts, connoting the light weight of the veil. Vertically analyzing at the painting, the sequential repetition of the a pale yellow, almost white, ties the work together. The first appearance of the pale yellow is weightless yellow feather, then the curved base of the woman’s hat and finally her simple dress fabric. Coming from the right, the light source Tarbell casted hits the woman’s shoulder first and most harshly as it is the most apparent and the brightest. Tarbell's lighting choice subsequently projects a heavy shadow under her hat and around her face, adding intrigue and an anonymity to the woman. The composition of Tarbell's Blue Veil is severely imbalanced, only offset by the one or two inches of blank canvas on the right. Tarbell’s composition pulls the viewer's eye along and to the left of the painting, the woman's gaze, the billowing veil and subtle curvature of the hat make it seem as though the viewer can feel the presence of wind pushing the veil and the subsequent creation its beautiful and effortless ripples. This undeniable, yet unseen, presence of nature carries over to the woman's hat; the yellow curve and mound of her hat resembles rolling hill against a sky’s blue flecked with yellow horizon, the brilliant green mass a possible sun setting behind the hill, the feather on top is suggestive of the glare from the green sun. The woman’s face hidden underneath in the shade of the cool knoll. Her posture is relaxed, her shoulders round and drawn down. The veil in its rich blue color undoubtedly seeks to mimic the fluidity of moving water. Tarbell’s painting has more resemblance to a landscape-type of painting common during the Impressionist movement rather than a conventional portrait with focus on a wave-like veil rather than the beauty of a woman's face or prowess of a man. Tarbell’s painting in this sense, does not represent a traditional and conventional portrait. Long-established portraiture would be perhaps more aristocratic, focused on representing someone with a title, someone who wishes to show their face and for it to be recognised (Miles 269). Collectively, the piece works well to create a calm and elegant portrayal of a woman, reminiscent of nature, yet subutley invokes mystery and intriuge by what Tarbell chose to leave out. 

About The Artist

  Edmund Charles Tarbell, born and raised in West Groton, Massachusetts, was an influential painter and eventual teacher of the arts. In 1879 Tarbell enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, studying there until 1883 under the apprenticeship of Emil Otto Grundmann, a German painter and Frederic Crowninshield, a British artist and designer closely connected with the Pre-Raphaelites During this time, Tarbell formed a lifelong friendship with fellow student Frank Benson and the pair left for Paris in 1883 enrolling at the renowned Académie Julian, an art school with a prestigious reputation with American and international art students. The son of a ship designer, Tarbell left traditional schooling to pursue an artistic career, and instead took an apprenticeship at W. H. Forbes Lithographic Company. Tarbell then spent three years studying there with the French academic painters such as Gustave Boulanger, Jules Lefebvre, Robert Fleury, and Adolphe William Bouguereau. This trip to Paris would open Tarbell’s mind to new styles such as Impressionism and thus his ability to personally redefine portraiture. Upon his return to Boston, Tarbell spent the next few years offering private lessons, making illustrations, and establishing his reputation as a respectable painter by showing his work in local and national exhibitions. Tarbell began his influential career as a teacher of the arts in 1889, when he assumed the position as a painting instructor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, becoming head of the department soon thereafter in 1890. Students of his were often called Tarbellites because of Tarbell’s distinct bright, Impressionistic landscapes decorated with wholesome girls in white dresses, a style of painting which translated over to his teaching style. The reputation as a creddited teacher,  confirmed his position and membership in 1898 as one of the founding members of “The Ten,” an informal group of painters who became dissatisfied with the increasingly conservative exhibition practices of New York’s Society of American Artists and broke away to establish their own organization. Members included Edward Simmons , Joseph Rodefer DeCamp , Frederick Childe Hassam, Julian Alden Weir, John Henry Twachtman, Thomas Dewing, Willard Metcalf, Frank Benson, Robert Reid , Edmund Tarbell, and upon the death of John Henry Twachtman in 1902, William Merritt Chase joined the organization in his place. The Ten were pioneers in new lands of art forms such as Impressionism, breaking away from quotidian style. Upon his death in 1938, Tarbell was eulogized as one of America’s greatest painters (Hale 129–158; Volpe; Hirshler).

The Departure From The Old and The Arrival To The New

Preceding Impressionism’s departure from traditional formality, artists followed movements such as Neoclassicism and Romanticism.Neoclassicism, as the name suggests, was a Western resurgence of “classic” art forms such as paintings and architecture that pulled inspiration from ancient Roman and Greek empires (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, "Neoclassicism").  Romanticism, the latter reaction to Neoclassicism, thematically was defined by a symbolic natural world, externally imposed imagination, and the presence of dramatic emotions (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, "Romanticism"). A prominent figure in the 18th and 19th century and within such art styles was artist John Singleton Copley. With his skillful technique and social insights, Copley fashioned sitters into the personae they wanted to project. He adroitly choreographed bodies, settings, and objects into visual biographies that could calibrate social position and wealth in his portraits (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "John Singleton Copley"). Achieving his position as portraitist to the merchant elite of Boston and New York, his style vastly differs from Tarbell’s. Copley’s piece entitled Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers, is a portrait of the wife of a wealthy and prominent Quaker at the eve of Mr. and Mrs Jerathmael Bower’s marriage in 1763 (See figure 2).  Done in a similar manner to the portrait of Lady Caroline Russell painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1759. Copley followed this model with precision, substituting the face of the sitter for that of Lady Russell, the prominent wife of the 4th Duke of Marlborough (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers"). 

Figure 2. Singleton Copley, John. Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers (1763). Oil on canvas. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10530

Many cite the French Impressionist movement as the original inspiration of the Impressionist movement in America (Weinberg, Bolger, and Curry 3–4). Characterized by relatively small yet visible brushstrokes, everyday subject matter, and a keen depiction of movement, the Impressionist movement rebelled from traditional art movements of the past. Renowned French painters such as Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir are credited with starting the Impressionist movement in France approximately in the 1870’s (Roth, 2016). Taking a look at Degas works, they show this new portrait era defined by Impressionism. The Singer in Green for example is a captured moment of a young girl singing ( See figure 3).  Captured mid-lyric, the girl is adorned in vivid hues of muddled yellow, scattered turquoise, brilliant orange and is almost dreamlike with no coherent background such as Tarbell’s The Blue Veil. Or perhaps another of Degas’ portraits, Ballet Dancers on the Stage, which depicts Degas’ perspective of several ballet dancers mid-movement and at an unique above angle ( See figure 4).  Not all of the dancers on the stage can be seen and  drawing inspiration from common Japanese prints he so admired, Degas arranges his composition in an asymmetrical way, balancing a triangular void at bottom left with the cluster of figures filling the center and upper right (Dallas Museum of Art, "Ballet Dancers on the Stage"). Not only are the shades of fair blue and sunny yellows familiar to Tarbell’s work, Degas’ unique interpretation of a portrait strikes resemblance. Both have the color, form and non-aristocratic subject matter uncommon to traditional portraits.  

Figure 3. Degas, Edgar. The Singer in Green (1884). Pastel on paper. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436159

Figure 4. Degas, Edgar. Ballet Dancers on Stage (1883). Pastel on paper. Dallas Museum of Art, TX. https://www.dma.org/object/artwork/4171785/

Impressionism would soon trickle down to American painters and international art students who would travel to Paris to be taught at schools such as the Académie Julian. Starting as early as the 1860s American painters had avidly entertained European ideals, especially the French academic commitment to elevated subjects, laborious execution and high finishing and the Barbizon School's love of poetic landscape that privileges mood and expression over topography.  Tarbell himself went to study in Paris as well under the Académie Julian in 1883 studying under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. Tarbell’s painting, Across The Room fabricated in 1899, presumably after his return from Paris, along with The Blue Veil would show his interpretation of poetic landscape, a characteristic of Impressionism, as opposed to the traditional American Pre-Raphaelites landscapes or classic portrayal (See figure 5). Across The Room is a quiet, depiction of a light-filled room with a solo woman occupant reclined lazily upon a couch. Silent and seemingly motionless, the woman in a ruffled cream gown seems to be haphazardly there, with Tarbell’s focus being the sprawling brown floor and  infinite space of the room. The glossy floor and curtained window filtering light into the room creates a reflection upon the floor almost like a reflection in a pond. She, like the woman in The Blue Veil,  is being portrayed, but in more relation to a landscape as characterized by the Impressionist movement. American artists such as Tarbell had some artistic independence and weren’t verbatim producing what French Impressionists were painting, but rather mixed both American and French styles as influences to create their own. As time progressed Americans wished to be of their own time and place, and painters and critics alike saw both the Impressionist and Realist of the United States as helping to reestablish a national voice (Weinberg, Bolger, and Curry 2–49). What American painters such as Tarbell did take from French Impressionism, as visible through comparison, was a keen sense of movement, vibrant colors and unique perspective in terms of portraiture. 

Figure 5. Tarbell, Edmund Charles. Across The Room (1899).  Oil on Canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12775

In 1854 Japanese ports opened up to international trade. This introduced the concept of Japonisme, a reinterpretation of Japanese art into the Western art world. An influx of Eastern art was then adapted and reinterpreted into the Western art world, especially France (Hokenson 17–37). French Impressionists such as Edgar Degas and Claude Monet were fascinated with Japanese woodblock prints, an export of Japanese trade. French Impressionism drew inspiration from this art form and it was visually transferred, reinventing the portrait along with the popularization and incorporation of vivid color and nature’s movement. Perhaps the most famous of the woodblock prints to be exported was, The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, by Hokusai, an influential Japanese artist (See figure 6). Commonly recognized even today, the famous print depicts a large and threatening wave towering over three fishing boats off the coast of the town of Kanagawa while Mount Fuji rises in the background. The extraordinary wave is enriched with brilliant blue pigments and aggressive white foam at the surf break.  The Great Wave Off Kanagawa is a  portrayal  of the men at sea yet focuses more heavily on nature and movement rather than man, such as Trabell’s The Blue Veil. Also in Hokusai’s repertoire was his collection titled,  A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provincies, another set of woodblock prints. Completed in eight installments, Hokusai’s woodblock prints of this collection depict epic and vibrant blue waterfalls. The prints dwarf human presence, making them cohesive with the backgrounds and natural to the surrounding environment such as Tarbell’s woman’s reduced presence. One installment in particular that resonates with Tarbell’s, The Blue Veil, is entitled,  Horse Washing in Fall (  See figure 7).  Fabricated in 1835, the print depicts a boisterous and lively water stream cascading down a hilly terrain with two men stuck in the middle and a horse seemingly refusing to move. Perhaps the first noticeable color is the deep blue and stark white outlining the stream, calling attention to the element of water and its rushing trajectory first and utmost. The surrounding brush and foliage take a more neutral pale green and reddish brown tone and saturation. 

Figure 6.Hokusai. The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1826-1836), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji ". Color woodcut. library-artstor-org.libproxy.berkeley.edu/asset/AWSS35953_35953_41726495

The departure and exploration of color, light and movement in Impressionist works would lead to growth in succeeding movements artists would follow such as post-Impressionism, Fauvism,  and Cubism. Many of these styles would carry the characteristics of vivid expression and unnaturalistic use of color that flourished during the Impressionist movement. As the opposition of  conventional style, Impressionism introduced a stylistic movement that pulled viewers deeper than appearance-based provinces concerned with wealth and representation, towards an abstract, innovative direction.

Tarbell's Distinct Style

Tarbell’s personal style evolved from Japanese and French Impressionism and is distinct from Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Recalling Copley's "Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers", Tarbell chooses to not name the woman and her presence is minimalized in his work The Blue Veil, while Copley chooses the ceremonious name of the bride-to-be as the title and she is clearest in focus. The color scheme of Tarbell’s work is light and the brush strokes heavy in certain areas whereas not a single rumple in Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers dress is messily done and her skin a fine, smooth alabaster. The form of Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers is rigid and regal, looking off to the left and her gaze juxtaposed by the dog’s gaze right, both their postures stagnant compared to Tarbell’s veil which twirls around the woman’s face and the painting. Unlike The Blue Veil, the background shows a darkened forest and chestnut brown chair in which Mrs. Jerathmael Bower's right arm effortlessly slumps over. Little is left to imagine in Copley’s portrait while it's up to the imagination to predict what surface the woman in The Blue Veil is seated upon. Both pieces had different intentions despite both being portrayals of women. The Impressionistic style is easy, light and redefines what subjects should be captured by a portrait while Copley maintains tradition, formality and explicit purpose. 

The similarities between Hokusai's Horse Washing in Fall and The Blue Veil are striking. The resemblance to Tarbell’s veil can be seen not only by vivid shade of blue drawing the eye immediately to, but also the composition of the waterfall. The first curve of the landscape in Houkusai’s print brings the rushing water swooping to the left, the same direction as the woman’s veil in Tarbell’s painting. The woman’s face, the two men and the horse’s presence in both artworks are engulfed by the conspicuous flowing blue forms, drawing principal attention to the landscapes. The presence of nature in both therefore, is undeniable. The woman’s hat and understandably her veil, both have characteristics of nature-like elements. Her hat; the protruding semi-white feather with a touch of deep yellow at its point of divergence as a glare of the sun, the oblong vibrant emerald green mass nestled and anchored right below the weightless feather as a brilliant green sun setting behind the hills, and the fluent curved yellow mound of her hat resembling rolling hills against the sky’s blue and golden horizon, all creating a poetic landscape aesthetic rather than that of a conventional portrait, an undeniable presence of nature and movement. 

Taking a look at Preparing For The Matinee, a darker and more structured painting of Tarbell’s discography, Tarbell’s style preferences become obvious (See figure 8). The painting portrays a woman getting ready to go out for the evening, sitting upon a chair in front of a golden mirror, the woman is fixing atop her head an extravagant black feather hat. Wearing a white blouse tucked into a black skirt and surrounded by primarily cool and neutral tones, a blue ribbon tied around the woman’s neck and a small purple flower on her hat meets her left hand are the only hints of color. Seated indoors and primped, this type of painting was a signature to the Tarbell style that had yet not fully adapted color or a keen sense of movement. Additionaly, portraits of American presidents Woodrow Wilson (1921), Calvin Coolidge (1925), and Herbert Hoover, (1921) show Tarbell’s ability to create and portray formal qualities in the style he had pre-Impressionist.  

A look at Mrs. Lawrence 1912, is perhaps the most different portrait in Tarbell’s discography and shows his evolving style ( See figure 9). Facing forward and eyes meeting the viewer, Mrs. Lawrence, is painted in a blush pink dress, with a pink flower on her right breast. Sitting on a pillowy chair of blue fabric, her right hand placed delicately on her right cheek, her left arm slung lazily over the chair. Far off onto the left of the painting, a table is off to the side with a vase and flowers on the table barely visible. This painting of Tarbells contrasted to his previous work Preparing For The Matinee the tonal difference of the paintings are stark. The warm color and inviting gaze of Mrs. Lawrence compared to the cool gray solitude and averted gaze of  the woman in Preparing For The Matinee. This timeline comparison clearly shows Tarbell’s style adaptation and his adoption of color yet maintains lucidity that would remain until The Blue Veil. 

Figure 9. Tarbell, Edmund Charles. Mrs. Lawrence (1912). Oil on canvas. Accessed on Apr.1,2020 http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_137339/Edmund-Charles-Tarbell/Mrs.John-Lawernce

Lastly, comparing both Preparing For The Matinee and Mrs. Lawrence there are several differences and similarities between them, all having the mark of the artist, as well as showing his adapting style. Preparing For The Matinee and The Blue Veil resemble each other due to both women harshly facing left and adorning ostentatious hats. The differences lie in color representation and of course, the presence of the veil, of a sense of movement which was popularized by the Impressionist movement. Preparing For The Matinee  has as well as in Mrs. Lawrence, there is a coherent background. Both women are in a perceptible room unlike the woman in The Blue Veil who is surrounded by a splotchy blue and yellow background. By 1898, Tarbell shifted his style from the dark and clearly drawn studies of figures adopting a brighter and more colorful Impressionistic manner which allowed for more interpretive and innovative portraits.

Conclusions

The Blue Veil, a painting done by Edmund Charles Tarbell, depicting an unknown woman adorned with a precarious blue veil yet behind it, reveals much more than a woman's visage. Through Tarbells’ adoption of the Impressionist movement, he is able to innovatively portray a woman while simultaneously representing the new and forthcoming art style of Impressionism. By renovating the traditional portrait, Tarbell introduces a dichotomy between past and modern portraiture. By looking at artworks done prior to the Impressionist movement within and outside of Tarbell’s discography, The Blue Veil’s innovativeness is highlighted in comparison to traditional, feminine portraits. By looking at Tarbell and other Impressionist inspirations, the elements of color, composition and natural movement becomes undeniable to the Impressionist movement and Tarbell’s later style. Tarbell through The Blue Veil  modernizes antiquated portraiture in America. 

Appendix

Medical similarities of Edmund Charles Tarbell’s painting, The Blue Veil.  

Much like an x-ray of something beneath, Tarbell’s painting of the woman with a veil, reveals much more structure and intricacies not visible on the outside. Looking behind the veil, as a doctor would do,  reveals much more information about the Impressionist movement and Tarbell’s art style. Tarbell’s inspiration of color and form is discoverable by comparison to works such as Edgar Degas or Japanese wood prints, or differentiated from previous art movements when attempting to look behind the veil. Like a doctor would attempt to search for the spawn of a cancer, the patient's medical past could be analyzed on its own, but a comparison to other patients would benefit both parties. Life-threatening differences in symptoms, like differences from Tarbell to John Singleton Cowley, can be exemplified while similar, normal symptoms can be made as well, such as those of Degas and Tarbell. 

Looking from a mental health perspective, many people hide behind a “veil” daily, a smile and a happy outside demeanor keep prying minds out of their own. Like the woman in the painting, many people can hide behind their mien with large, beautiful and billowing veils to keep up appearance, while a not so happy inside phantom lives. There is some subtlety of the sadness perhaps, as veils don’t opaquely block out what’s behind them, so like the woman’s face, you can get a hint , an outline perhaps of what’s behind.  

Bibliography

 Dallas Museum of Art,”Ballet Dancers on the Stage”  https://www.dma.org/object/artwork/4171785/ Accessed on 5-1-2020. 

Hale, Philip L.“Edmund C. Tarbell- Painter of Pictures: Living American Painters-Twelfth Article.” Arts & Decoration (1910-1918), vol. 2, no.4, 1912, pp. 129-158. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43799942. Accessed 21 Mar. 2020.

Hirshler, Erica E. “Impressionism Transformed : The Paintings of Edmund C. Tarbell.” Manchester, N.H, Currier Gallery of Art, University Press of New England, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1700850. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.

Hokenson, Jan. “Proust's ‘Japonisme’: Contrastive Aesthetics.” Modern Language Studies, vol. 29, no. 1, 1999, pp. 17–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3195357?seq=1. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “John Singleton Copley.” https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/copl/hd_copl.htm. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers.” https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/copl/hd_copl.htm. 

 Miles, Ellen G. “The Great American Profile: Folk Portraiture Reconsidered.” Art Journal, vol. 39, no. 4, 1980, pp. 279–281. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/776303. Accessed 7 May 2020. 

Roth Vanessa. “French, Russian and American Impressionism.” Lecture, https://issuu.com/realismwithoutborders.com/docs/final_pdf_rothe_russian_lecture_201. March 10, 2016. Accessed 2 Apr. 2020.

Tate.org.uk https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/portrait 

Volpe,Christopher.“A Legacy of Beauty: Paintings in the Boston School Tradition.”,

Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc.,2007. Resource Library tfaoi.org. Accessed 21 Mar. 2020.

Weinberg, Barbra H., Doreen Bolger, and David Park Curry. “American Impressionism and Realism: the Painting of Modern Life: 1885-1915.” 2-49, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. Accessed: 24-03-2020. 

Annotated Bibliography

Adams, Henry. “ Winslow Homer’s ‘Impressionism’ and Its Relation to His Trip to France.” Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 26, Symposium Papers XI: Winslow Homer: A Symposium (1990), pp. 60-89. National Gallery of Art, www.jstor.org/stable/42620232. 

This article by Henry Adams starts off by acknowledging Winslow Homer’s French Impressionist style in his 1860s-1870s paintings, yet also narrates Homer’s artistic independence. The discrepancy that creates the argument for this source is how Homer “turned” to the style of Impressionism. The side Adams takes argues Homer was in Paris at the wrong time to have seen the boom of French Impressionism therefore couldn't have been solely influenced by it (Adams doesn't deny total absence of French influence in Homer’s works but rather argues for a mix of both American and French styles as influences). The counter argument presented, led by an analysis of Albert Ten Eyck Gardener work, argues that Homer’s trip to Paris was crucial in dictating his impressionistic style. Gardner's strongest argument comes from the statement that how could such a prominent painter such as Homer, remain oblivious to the art styles of Paris, a leading and flourishing art hub. Adams argues that Gardner wrote his analysis of Homer from the common viewpoint of “ Pre-Raphaelites” , a prominent art force in America during that time, that was infamous for trite,safe and frankly boring landscape-centric painting styles in the eyes of the exciting, new French “Barbizon” style. The counter to this argument by Adams is that Homer’s style of painting before and after his trip to Paris had already surpassed the “Pre-Raphaelites” style of painting. All in all, the back and forth argument between Gardenr and Adams provides a concise thesis for both which I find is helpful. For Adams to make an argument against Gardner, both authors' arguments must be clear and detailed. 

Hale, Philip L.“Edmund C. Tarbell- Painter of Pictures: Living American Painters-Twelfth Article.” Arts & Decoration (1910-1918), vol. 2, no.4, 1912, pp. 129-158. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43799942. 

This 1912 magazine gives insight into Painter Edmund Tarbell’s life. Phillip Hale, the author provides a brief overview of Tarbell’s background as a designer at a Lithography company and his eventual connection to the world of painting via studying at The Boston Art Museum School. The article states it was not written to “count his gold medals”, but rather to arrive at an understanding of his work, how he obtained such skills. Hale then details his teacher's influence, Otto Grudmann. Tarbell has the ability to “paint fatly” which was achieved through Grudmann’s classical Dutch training that was then taught to Tarbell. Tarbell’s example paintings are provided to show his ability to curate composition,”storytelling” and design, “arranging the outlines of light and dark to make handsome patterns.” Hale then points out Tarbell’s keen eye for wise backgrounds and his ability to shade figures originally and thoughtfully.  This source provides content that I can use to further analyze my primary painting, The Blue Veil, and a few other pieces from Tarbell that I can juxtapose. Being that this article mentions little about the French Impressionism movement in relation to American art, which as of now is one central argument of my paper, I will further elaborate with other sources. There’s also a brief mention of Japanese print influence mentioned, which I plan on further researching.

Volpe, Christopher.“A Legacy of Beauty: Paintings in the Boston School Tradition.”,

Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc.,2007. Resource Library tfaoi.org. 

This article highlights the art scene in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Boston. Christopher Volpe, the author, describes Boston’s flourishing art scene due to Impressionist art and young, influential and adaptive American artists. Volpe details the origins of the Boston School as having roots from The Museum of Fine Arts School. The credibility and notoriety as an establishing art force of the Museum of Fine Arts School is due partly to Jean-Francois Millet's masterpiece, The Sower,which was purchased and displayed by revered painter William Morris Hunt.Hunt who was an influential board member of  the Museum of Fine Arts, then co-established The Museum of Fine Arts School, as well as becoming a teacher there. Among Hunt’s students was Trabell, who after attending school there and in Paris (and other European countries between 1883 and 1885)  came back and was made a faculty member. He eventually left his position and with a group of other artists, parented the Boston School Artists and became known as the "Ten American Painters". This source gives a lot of information about the people and establishments who surrounded Tarbell. It also offers a pretty comprehensive timeline of Tarbell’s career and the Impressionist movement as well which is really helpful.

Weinberg, Barbra H., Doreen Bolger, and David Park Curry. “American Impressionism and Realism: the Painting of Modern Life: 1885-1915.” 2-49, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. 

The first sections, introduction, a section titled “passionate spectators” and “the studio”of this book are riddled with helpful information.To introduce the viewer to American Impressionism, the author(s) analyse the significance of French and European influence.Also in this introduction is a compare and contrast analysis of American Realists to Impressionists who emerged on the scene in the early 1900s. The other sections touched on subjects such as subject matter portrayal (landscape vs. human) and the spaces some of the big named painters created their works. This reading gave insight to the context American Impressionists were painting in. Among the themes discussed throughout are a new sense of nationalism, industrialization and socioeconomic status. I found this source to be incredibly helpful generating a historical timeline for the era Tarbell was painting in. These external factors definitely play into the internal factors of his paintings and especially The Blue Veil which depicts a portrait of a seemingly wealthy woman.