Daniel Garber: Teaching at the PAFA

"The Last of Winter" by Daniel Garber

"'One of America's best loved art teachers,' Daniel Garber joined the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the fall of 1909. At a time of great change in style in both painting and art school instruction, Garber stood firm as a defender of the aesthetic values and the teaching system he had known in the late nineteenth century. For over forty years his well-respected presence stabilized the school, offering an inspiration or a challenge to generations of Academy students and balancing the diverse styles and personalities of the faculty.

Following the apprentice tradition at the Academy, Garber began as Anshutz's assistant, teaching night school drawing classes and helping with the still life and portrait classes. Gradually he worked his way up the ladder of teaching positions, until he reached the top - supervising the senior painting classes - though he always controlled some of the basic drawing studios. Normally, Garber came in from the country on Wednesday afternoon in time for the evening life class. He spent the night in town, taught the Thursday 'antique' drawing session and then returned to Lumberville, unless special projects or winter weather kept him in Philadelphia over the weekend. 

His assistant recalled: 

'On Thursday morning a few minutes after nine Mr. Garber would come down the Academy front hallway treading firmly, his hair parted in the middle and with an expression of seriousness. He would walk through the rotunda and on to his locker in the back hall, where he would put on his rich brown smock and then continue on down the hall tying the belt of his smock and on into one of the cast drawing classes. The students were more aware of his presence than they showed. He would walk over to where a student was drawing.The student would get up out of his chair, Mr. Garber would sit down in the chair, look at the cast that was being drawn and at the drawing. Meanwhile, he would take out his pocket knife while looking at the drawing, open the knife and put a very sharp point on the charcoal - sharper than the student could get with a sandpaper sharpener. Then he would make some clear and decisive lines of correction. Then he would talk to the student a bit, modulating his voice to suit the merits of the drawing. Then he would go on to the next student, while sometimes the student for whom he had just been criticizing would leave the class for a breather, and sometimes, though rarely, to shed a few tears.'

Even for those who found his style old-fashioned and his personality 'prickly,' Garber set standards for 'superb craftsmanship and discipline."

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.)