Daniel Garber: The Move to Pennsylvania

"Little Girl Knitting" by Daniel Garber

"Doubtless the reputation of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts had some force in Daniel Garber's decision to move to Pennsylvania. It was the oldest and arguably best art school in the nation. Thomas Anshutz, William Merritt Chase and Cecilia Beaux were teaching there in 1900. When the classes began in the fall of 1899, Garber was enrolled in the night life drawing class, probably under the direction of Anshutz. 

A few months before starting at the Academy, Garber had turned up at the 'Darby School of Painting,' a new summer art school in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, run by Anshutz and another Academy instructor, Hugh Henry Breckenridge. The curriculum included cast drawing, still life and indoor figure modelling, but logically the emphasis fell on landscape painting outdoors. Garber rapidly became a star among the students and a special favorite of Anshutz, who no doubt encouraged his skill as a charcoal draftsman. At the exhibition of student work at the Academy in October of that year, Garber's group of more than twenty canvases won the first Fellowship Prize ($25), given to 'the most gifted exponent of the Darby School.'

For Daniel Garber, one of the discoveries of the Darby School was Miss Mary Franklin, a student of Howard Pyle's at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. According to family tradition, he fell in love with 'May' while she was taking her turn modelling for Breckenridge's portrait class. Especially smitten by her ankles, Garber courted her from 1899 through 1901, while they were both attending night classes a the Academy. They married in 1901 after Garber convinced May's father that though he had little to offer at the time, 'I am going to be one of the great American painters.'

May, convinced that there wasn't room in the family for more than one great painter, put aside her career as an illustrator to become Daniel's best supporter and most effective critic. 'He asked her to keep him up to the mark, and she did,' recalls their daughter, 'oh, she sure did!'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from Daniel Garber, 1880-1958: Exhibition, June 27 - August 24, 1980, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts" by Kathleen Foster.)