The Blue Veil – nikhil.io

Edmund Charles Tarbell

1862–1938

Oil on canvas

Gift of Henry K. S. Williams

A founding member of The Ten, a group at the forefront of American Impressionism, Edmund Charles Tarbell believed that art "should render the beauty of the thing seen." As the title suggests, the subject of this painting is not the sitter but the sheer cloth that swirls around her, its dynamic, wind-blown form contrasting with her static and obscured profile.

The veil is affixed to a ribboned and embellished wide-brimmed hat. At the turn of the twentieth century, women's hats were often fastened with veils to prevent them from blowing away in open-air carriages. Such coverings also protected their wearers from exposure to the sun, wind, and dust, as well as the environmental pollutants that abounded in rapidly developing modern cities.