DOI issue:
The international Studio (September, 1907)
DOI article:Coburn, Frederick W.: Edmund C. Tarbell
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28252#0432
Edmuud C. Tarbell
when I was fifteen and my mother and stepfather
came home. They wished me to study and go to
college, and I wanted to paint. I finally decided
the matter by getting expelled from school (I am
not very proud of this part); and asked them to
allow me to study either with Hunt or at the Art
Museum. It was decided that that was an
absolute waste of time and money, but that if I
was so crazy to be a artist I should be indulged,
and I was placed at the W. H. Forbes Lithographic
Company as an apprentice at nothing a week for
one year, and after that what they thought I was
worth or would pay. I was there three years and
I think it was the best start I could
possibly have had. After that my
family allowed me to go to the Art
Museum, and I had no further seri-
ous trouble about being allowed to
become a painter, although a mild
remonstrance was raised from time
to time, as I was not wfhat you
might term a brilliant financial suc-
cess.”
The training in the lithographic
establishment proved valuable, as
Mr. Tarbell concedes. It was for-
tunately interrupted before it -was
carried too far. Working side by
side with the boy was an older man,
Horace J. Burdick, now a Boston
painter. Mr. Burdick’s remem-
brance of young Tarbell is that at
sixteen he was an extraordinarily
talented draughtsman, and that
personally he was an alert youth,
with fondness for the latest bit of
slang or topical song. The advice
of his companion in the shop had
much to do with causing Air. Tar-
bell to give up lithography and
enter the school of drawing and
painting at the Museum of Fine
Arts. The director at that time
was the late Otto Grundmann.
After the Boston school, in due
course, Paris. The masters there
were Boulanger and Lefevre. Their
admirable teaching was supple-
mented by influences outside the
classroom. Impressionism was at
its height in Paris during the early
eighties. In those days one read
Chevreul and Rood and confessed
girl with dog by edmijnd c. tarbell to an opinion that no one before
got to be about ten I decided to be an artist, but
did not tell anybody. I also, in my modest way,
decided that I was going to be the best one that
ever lived. All this time I played ball, swam (not
bathed), and sailed boats in summer and skated and
coasted in winter (in fine weather); in bad weather
I painted (marines).
“ When I got a little older I went to an evening
drawing school of which Mr. Bartlett (of the
Normal Art School) was principal; also one started
at the Art Museum. I think W. A. G. Claus was
an assistant in this, under Grundmann.
“All that was fine, but my grandfather died
Lxxvirr
when I was fifteen and my mother and stepfather
came home. They wished me to study and go to
college, and I wanted to paint. I finally decided
the matter by getting expelled from school (I am
not very proud of this part); and asked them to
allow me to study either with Hunt or at the Art
Museum. It was decided that that was an
absolute waste of time and money, but that if I
was so crazy to be a artist I should be indulged,
and I was placed at the W. H. Forbes Lithographic
Company as an apprentice at nothing a week for
one year, and after that what they thought I was
worth or would pay. I was there three years and
I think it was the best start I could
possibly have had. After that my
family allowed me to go to the Art
Museum, and I had no further seri-
ous trouble about being allowed to
become a painter, although a mild
remonstrance was raised from time
to time, as I was not wfhat you
might term a brilliant financial suc-
cess.”
The training in the lithographic
establishment proved valuable, as
Mr. Tarbell concedes. It was for-
tunately interrupted before it -was
carried too far. Working side by
side with the boy was an older man,
Horace J. Burdick, now a Boston
painter. Mr. Burdick’s remem-
brance of young Tarbell is that at
sixteen he was an extraordinarily
talented draughtsman, and that
personally he was an alert youth,
with fondness for the latest bit of
slang or topical song. The advice
of his companion in the shop had
much to do with causing Air. Tar-
bell to give up lithography and
enter the school of drawing and
painting at the Museum of Fine
Arts. The director at that time
was the late Otto Grundmann.
After the Boston school, in due
course, Paris. The masters there
were Boulanger and Lefevre. Their
admirable teaching was supple-
mented by influences outside the
classroom. Impressionism was at
its height in Paris during the early
eighties. In those days one read
Chevreul and Rood and confessed
girl with dog by edmijnd c. tarbell to an opinion that no one before
got to be about ten I decided to be an artist, but
did not tell anybody. I also, in my modest way,
decided that I was going to be the best one that
ever lived. All this time I played ball, swam (not
bathed), and sailed boats in summer and skated and
coasted in winter (in fine weather); in bad weather
I painted (marines).
“ When I got a little older I went to an evening
drawing school of which Mr. Bartlett (of the
Normal Art School) was principal; also one started
at the Art Museum. I think W. A. G. Claus was
an assistant in this, under Grundmann.
“All that was fine, but my grandfather died
Lxxvirr