FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, photos, and media passes to the May 20 event
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Captions for images below
Download more Tarbell images http://portsmouthhistory.org/tarbell-media/
Schedule for Reveal
7pm – the Reveal will take place after brief remarks from Portsmouth Historical Society Vice President Martha Fuller Clark
Restored Tarbell Treasure
to be Revealed May 20
Tarbell at Twilight 6-9pm
Discover Portsmouth
Portsmouth, New Hampshire…For over a century the oil painting lay rolled and forgotten in a New Hampshire home. This Friday, May 20, the newly restored treasure by American Impressionist Edmund C. Tarbell will make its first public appearance at a gala celebration of the artist’s life. The “rediscovered Tarbell” will remain on display to the public from May 21 until the hugely popular exhibit closes on June 3.
Jeremy Fogg, an art conservator working in York, Maine, has been restoring the painting since it was discovered last winter by a descendant of the famous painter. Edmund C. Tarbell, a founder of the Boston School of painting, summered in New Castle, NH and later made it his full time residence for over 30 years until his death there in 1938. His former home burned in a tragic fire just weeks before Illuminating Tarbell, a large retrospective of his work, opened at Discover Portsmouth last March. Fogg, who curated the exhibit, has been pulling out all the stops to display the “rediscovered” painting before the end of the show. It will be unveiled this Friday evening at a fundraiser entitled “Tarbell at Twilight.”
“It is a truly beautiful painting,” says Fogg, who has restored dozens of paintings by Tarbell. “And I’m thrilled, after months of work, that it will finally be seen.”
Fogg curated Illuminating Tarbell: Life and Art on the Piscataqua that includes over 50 works by the artist, many on loan from private collections across the nation. Thousands of visitors have come from as far away as Boston and New York. The exhibit includes a reconstruction of Tarbell’s New Castle studio, where the “rediscovered Tarbell” will be revealed this weekend. A second exhibit, Illuminating Tarbell: Legacy in Action, curated by Alastair Dacey, featuring works by living artists working in the Boston School style is also open in the second floor gallery at Discover Portsmouth. A catalog of both exhibits is available.
In a twist of fate, the recently discovered canvas is the twin of a smaller Tarbell painting that is part of the White House collection. Both portraits show a model, likely one of the artist’s wife’s sisters, posing by the sea. Press images will be released after the unveiling.
Fogg estimates the date of the work at or around 1891, when the artist was just launching his stellar career after studying in France. Tarbell is best known today as a teacher of the Boston School of American Impressionism that features natural light and classical forms. Fogg theorizes that the larger canvas, the one to be unveiled May 20, was slightly damaged, set aside, and eventually rolled up and forgotten.
“This is not only a fitting farewell to our spectacular Tarbell exhibit,” says Portsmouth Historical Society executive director Kathleen Soldati, “but an historic event. Thanks to the Tarbell descendents who discovered the painting, the Tarbell Charitable Trust, to Jeremy and Alastair, and to so many others-- we have been able to rekindle interest in our greatest local painter -- and bring a gorgeous work of art back to life.”
Soldati wishes to thank Exhibition Sponsors Anthony Moore Painting Conservation in York, Maine; the Tarbell Charitable Trust; Freemans; Central Signal Corporation; Hoefle, Phoenix, Gormley & Roberts; George Beland Furniture; Guido Frames; Puttin’ on the Glitz; Old as Adam Antiques & Vintage Haberdashery and Season Sponsors Brown & Company Design and Devine Marketing Group. Guido Frames of Boston has donated a beautiful reproduction Stanford White-style frame, valued at $7,500 for the restored Tarbell discovery. For Tarbell at Twilight, Event Sponsors include: State Farm Agency; People's United Bank; Anonymous; Vose Galleries; and Food/Beverage sponsors: The Wellington Room; Ceres Bakery; Street; La Maison Navarre; Doug Nelson/Wells Fargo Advisors LLC; Redhook Brewery; Blue Mermaid Island Grill; The Oar House; and thank you to Portsmouth Historical Society Staff & Volunteers
For tickets to the “Tarbell at Twilight” event May 20, (6-9 pm) or information on admission to the free Tarbell exhibit, open until June 3, please call Discover Portsmouth, 10 Middle Street in Portsmouth, NH, at 603-436-8433, or http://portsmouthhistory.org/tarbell-at-twilight-may-20th/
A retrospective exhibit featuring the paintings of Wendy Turner Island Light opens at Discover Portsmouth on June 17 and runs through September 30.
About Edmund C. Tarbell
Edmund C. Tarbell (1862-1936) had particularly close ties to the Portsmouth and the Seacoast. Born in Massachusetts, trained in Paris, he became an influential American Impressionist through his work in the so-called “Boston School” of painting. He lived with his family in nearby New Castle, NH for three decades. He left a cohesive and vibrant legacy through his teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and his own painting. By his death in 1938, Tarbell was one of the nation’s most widely recognized artists. His work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and numerous other collections.
About the Curators
Jeremy G. Fogg, of South Berwick, Maine, is a painting conservator and manager of Anthony Moore Painting Conservation in York, Maine. He is also a private art researcher, collector, and independent curator, Fogg has conserved and restored dozens of Tarbell paintings and has an intimate knowledge of their construction and unique characteristics. Over the years he has worked closely with the Tarbell family to study and preserve the artist’s legacy.
Alastair Dacey is a fine art painter living in New Castle and working in Portsmouth, NH. His artistic training spanned seven years, beginning at the Rhode Island School of Design. Dacey also studied at the Ingbretson Studio of Drawing and Painting and Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. Focusing on portraiture and figurative work, Dacey has been a professional for ten years, fulfilling notable commissions and winning awards regionally and nationally for his work. He has had studios in Boston, New York, San Antonio, and Mexico
About Portsmouth Historical Society
Founded in 1920, Portsmouth Historical Society is a tax-exempt 501©3 nonprofit devoted to introducing, interpreting and stimulating the study of Portsmouth history and to maintaining collections of historical artifacts and documents. It operates two facilities – the national historic landmark, the John Paul Jones House, and Discover Portsmouth, a cultural gateway that houses a welcome center/clearinghouse for residents and visitors interested in the city’s history, arts and culture; a museum of exhibitions and programs (on site and in elementary schools) devoted to Portsmouth history; a museum shop of unique Portsmouth gifts and books, and Historic Tours, including of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail. A gathering place for Portsmouth nonprofits, it is a popular location for event rentals. Discover Portsmouth, located at 10 Middle Street, Portsmouth, NH. Open daily from 9:30-5pm, Discover Portsmouth remains open until 8pm for Art Round Town, the first Friday of each month (6/3). For further information on exhibitions, publications, gift shop, lectures, rentals, and tours, please call 603-436-8433 or visit PortsmouthHistory.org.
**************CAPTIONS******************
All photos courtesy Portsmouth Historical Society
CAPTION 1: JEREMY FOGG WITH TARBELL HORSE PAINTING
As both an art conservator and curator of the groundbreaking exhibit “Illuminating Tarbell,” Jeremy Fogg has long been fascinated by the work of Edmund C. Tarbell. The unveiling this weekend of a “Rediscovered Tarbell” painting, unseen for over a century, will culminate the exhibit that closes on June 3. Here Fogg is restoring a painting showing Tarbell’s son on a horse. It is currently on display at Discover Portsmouth with 50 other works.
CAPTION 2 -- RESTORER CLOSEUP WORKING ON REDISCOVERED TARBELL PAINTING
Art conservator Alfred Ackerman (of Anthony Moore Painting Conservation) works on a recently discovered work by famed American Impressionist Edmund C. Tarbell. Ackerman and the team at Anthony Moore Painting Conservation in York, are managed by Jeremy Fogg, curator of “Illuminating Tarbell.” Fogg plans to unveil the previously unknown 1891-era painting at Discover Portsmouth this weekend. (Photo courtesy of Jeremy Fogg)