Ten Questions About The Ten

Posted by Meg Nola Apr 8, 2009

The group of American Impressionists known as The Ten was collectively most productive during the early part of the 20th century, primarily in the New England/New York area. Displeased by the way things were going within The Society of American Artists (i.e., “too much business and too little art”), these ten painters banded together and began to exhibit on their own. Here are ten questions about The Ten, whose works grace the walls of numerous museums:

Who was born in Salem, Massachusetts and descended from sea captains? ** Frank Weston Benson (1862-1951)

Who featured female musicians in some of his paintings, such as The Kreutzer Sonata, The Guitar Player and The Cellist? ** Joseph De Camp (1858-1923)

Who was a “robust, gregarious, witty individual who smoked heavily, swore loudly, and made delicate and refined paintings” (as per the Carnegie Museum’s brief artist bio)? ** Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938)

Whose real first name was Frederick, with a last name that sounded like it might be Arabic but was probably a misspelling of Horsham? ** Childe Hassam (1859-1935)

As a young man, which Ten artist teamed up with anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing to study the Native American Zuni tribe and was eventually made an honorary Zuni member? ** Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925)

Who married Elizabeth Reeves, one of his models? ** Robert Reid (1862-1929)

Whose painting The Golden Screen was used for the cover of a paperback printing of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth? ** Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862-1938)

Who was a Harvard man (Class of 1874)? ** Edward Simmons (1852-1931)

Who painted the haunting work Springtime and was the first Ten artist to die at the relatively young age of 52? ** John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902)

Whose father was Professor of Drawing at the West Point Military Academy, and who also initially described Impressionist work as “worse than the Chamber of Horrors”? ** J. Alden Weir (1852-1919)