Frank W. Benson: The Museum School Curriculum

"Eleanor Holding a Shell" by Frank Benson

"By 1897, a fairly long and rigorous curriculum had been developed at the Museum School in Boston. Ideally, students - men and women of all ages - stayed in the school for seven years, gradually moving up from level to level. To quote a supplement to the 1897 annual report: 'The applicants...are placed where their capacity warrants which is ascertained after a week's work with Mr. Philip Hale. Those who have not acquired sufficient knowledge by previous training are placed in the beginners room to draw from plaster ornaments and heads. By the middle of the year, all the pupils...are in the galleries, drawing from the antique. 

This most difficult and valuable work upon which so much stress is laid in the French schools, continues until the students become sufficiently proficient to be sent up to draw the whole figure from the nude under Mr. Benson. There the pupil...begins by drawing the outlines of the figure in order to get the action; and, when fairly accomplished in this, is allowed to devote the whole week to the figure. When proficient in drawing in the character of the figure in light and shade, he is allowed to paint from still life in the afternoons under Mr. Tarbell.' The national reputations of these three successful artists brought students from all over New England and beyond, eager to study under the guidance of these famous instructors.

Benson loved to teach and felt a deep involvement with the training of young people. He touched the lives of thousands of aspiring artists. His influence can be clearly seen in the work of his pupils as well as the works of the students they later taught. Yet, with typical humility, Benson felt that he was the one who gained from his years as a teacher. A former students quoted him as saying, 'Although I may have helped others, I learned the most!'" 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson" by Faith Andrews Bedford.)