What Lies Beneath the Veil: A History of Impressionism Through the Work of Edmund Charles Tarbell

Tarbell, Edmund Charles. The Blue Veil (1898). Oil on canvas. De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA. 

The Blue Veil, is a painting done by Edmund Charles Tarbell in the year in 1898. 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 is 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 Monet, Tarbell, Sargent and Hokusai. 

Visual Analysis

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. 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.

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. 

Tarbell's lighting choice 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. 

There is an undeniable, yet unseen, presence of nature. The woman's hat resembles a rolling hill against a  blue sky: a brilliant green sun setting just behind the hill.  The feather on top is reminiscent of a solar glare captured on camera. 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 as it's focus is on a veil rather than the woman's face.  

Collectively, the piece works well to create a calm and elegant portrayal of a woman, reminiscent of nature, yet subtly invokes mystery and intrigue 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).

Tarbell, Edmund Charles. Mrs. Lawrence (1912). Oil on canvas.

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.  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"). 

Singleton Copley, John. Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers (1763). Oil on canvas. 

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.  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 a unique above angle .  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. 

Degas, Edgar. Ballet Dancers on Stage (1883). Pastel on paper. Dallas Museum of Art, TX. 

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. 

Tarbell, Edmund Charles. Across The Room (1899).  Oil on Canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

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. 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 in Tarbell’s The Blue Veil. 

Hokusai. The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1826-1836), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji ". Color woodcut.

 Hokusai. Horse Washing in Fall (1760 - 1849) - From  A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provincies collection. Color woodcut. 

The 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 unnatural 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 concerns of wealth and representation. In fact, it often dwarfed human presence, embedding people into the natural surrounding environment. Through the likes of Tarbell Degas, and Hokusai,  the innovativeness of Impressionism is stark in comparison to traditional portraiture of the time. 

Sources:

 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.