Willard Metcalf: Artistic Development

"Indian Summer, Vermont" by Willard Metcalf

"Because the apprenticeship contract with George Loring Brown stipulated painting trips with the master, Willard Metcalf packed his gear and made his way to the White Mountains early in September. A sketching trip was part of Hudson River School practice, and for the next six weeks Metcalf sketched and painted such famous subjects as Black Mountain, Artists Brook, Conway Meadows, and Mount Washington from Thorne Hill. Mount Washington was the highest point in the eastern United States and had been a subject for American artists from Thomas Cole to Godfrey Frankenstein to Winslow Homer. 

When Metcalf returned from the White Mountains, he added to his work in Brown's studio Monday and Thursday night classes at the Lowell Institute. There, he said, 'I sometimes went to an art class in a gloomy room opposite Old South Church. There was a model - the same one for years - but no teacher.' Childe Hassam also attended Lowell Institute about this time, and it is possible that these future friends and close colleagues first met there. 

Metcalf was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Brown's studio, until finally on 4 April 1876 he brought his apprenticeship to an end. He continued at the Lowell Institute, however, applied for a scholarship in the art school of the new Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In December 1876 he learned that he was among the first of a group of students to receive scholarships to the institution that later became known as the Boston Museum School."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.)