Illuminating Tarbell is a unique two-part work devoted to the life and legacy of Edmund C. Tarbell, one of the major American Impressionist painters and the leader of the Boston School. Although often most closely associated with Boston, Tarbell maintained a home and studio in New Castle, New Hampshire, for more than thirty years and had an especially close relationship with this beautiful area. This book, published to accompany a loan exhibition at the Portsmouth Historical Society, illustrates and discusses many of his principal works, some never published before and several recently conserved. Based on new research into the holdings of the Tarbell Charitable Trust and other sources, Jeremy G. Fogg and Christopher Volpe examine Tarbell's career, emphasizing the importance of family and place to his artistic vision.Tarbell, throughout his life, was an effective and influential teacher. Today, nearly eighty years after his death, Tarbell's legacy lives on in the work of contemporary artists who embrace and espouse his philosophy about ?the dignity of art? and emulate his techniques. Here, Alastair Dacey examines paintings by six members of this modern ?Tarbell school,? including Don Demers, Mary Minifie, Colin Page, Paul Ingbretson, Jean Lightman, and himself. He demonstrates both their individual abilities and the strength of this important and on-going artistic tradition in New England and the United States. The result is an extraordinary opportunity to see how Tarbell and later generations have illuminated their specific vision of truth and beauty.The book includes large color images of about 30 works of art by Tarbell and the six contemporary artists; 15 Tarbell family photographs; an illustrated checklist of the 106 works included in the exhibition, including 59 by Tarbell and 47 contemporary works; and a select bibliography.