Early Fenway Artists

Artists shown in this section were early residents of Fenway Studios and where known, their studio number(s) and dates of residence are given. We hope to expand this section of the site to show more and more the contributions to the art and history of Boston that have emerged from Fenway Studios.

The notes below are by Nancy Allyn Jarzombek and are taken from her work for the Vose Galleries publication, Mary Bradshaw Titcomb and Her Contemporaries / The Artists of Fenway Studios, 1905 – 1939, being the catalog of the exhibition May 30 – July 31, 1998. Used with permission of Vose Galleries.

Epilogue: Artists Move In

“...on the whole we like our simple bare rooms better for common solid work”

“Construction of Fenway Studios began in April 1905. Artists quickly signed up for studio spaces. Some on the list were those who had lost their studios to the Harcourt fire; others were attracted by the promise of excellent working conditions and reasonable rents. The building was finished by November 21, 1905, but artists began moving in as early as October. Although some artists lived in their studios, many lived elsewhere and commuted. Two years after it opened the Boston Globe reported that the st udios had filled "almost as soon as completed and now another fully as large, in the same neighborhood could be filled also.”

“The occupants represented a wide cross-section of Boston's artists. Some of the city's best known, such as Museum School teachers Edmund C. Tarbell, Philip L. Hale and William M. Paxton, and the influential Massachusetts Normal Art School teacher Joseph DeCamp, worked alongside their students, many of whom doubled up in studios to save money. Stylistically conservative painters such as William Worcester Churchill worked next door to those experimenting with aspects of modernism such as Carl Gordon Cutler, Charles Hovey Pepper and Charles Hopkinson.”

Representative Artists

Joseph Rodefer DeCamp (1858-1923) The Pink Feather (The Brown Veil) Oil on canvas 30 x 25 inches Signed Lower Left: 1908 Fenway Studios 1911 – 1916 Studio 108 Photo courtesy of Vose Galleries	Gertrude Fiske (1878-1961) Sunny Beach, Ogunquit, Maine Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches Signed Lower Left: Gertrude Fiske Fenway Studios 1947 – 1960 Studio 208 Photo courtesy of Vose Galleries	Mary Bradish Titcomb (1858-1927) The Writer Oil on canvas 30 x 25 inches Signed Lower Right: Circa 1912 Fenway Studios 1919 – 1927 Studio 205 Photo courtesy of Vose Galleries
Charles Hopkinson (1869-1962) Happy Blowing Bubbles Oil on canvas 30 x 25 inches Signed Lower Left: 1910 Fenway Studios 1906 – 1958 Studio 403 Photo courtesy of Vose Galleries	George Loftus Noyes (1864-1954) Front Beach, Rockport, Massachusetts Oil on canvas 13 1/2 x 15 inches Signed Lower Left: G. L. Noyes Fenway Studios 1908 – 1910 Studio 104 Photo courtesy of Vose Galleries	William M. Paxton (1869-1941) Reddy and the Macaw Oil on canvas 25 x 30 inches Signed Upper Left: Circa 1923 Fenway Studios 1906 – 1915 Studio 411 Photo courtesy of Vose Galleries
Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862-1938) Girl with Sailboat (Josephine Tarbell) Oil on canvas 40 x 30 inches Signed Lower Left Fenway Studios 1911 – 1934 Studios 101, 201, 301 Photo courtesy of Vose Galleries	Marguerite Stuber Pearson (1898-1978) Afternoon Concert Oil on canvas 36 1/4 x 44 1/4 inches Signed Lower Right: M. S. Pearson Circa 1935 Fenway Studios 1930 – 1942 Studio 401 (This work depicts the interior of her studio, #401) Photo courtesy of Vose Galleries