Mother and Child in a Boat

Mother and Child in a Boat was painted by the American artist Edmund Charles Tarbell in 1892, during the period when he was developing his Impressionist style- as he had encountered Impressionism while studying in Paris between 1884 and 1886. But he began seriously adopting the style around 1890. The painting depicts his wife Emeline and their young daughter Josephine- turning an ordinary family moment into an intimate domestic scene. The mother and child sit together in a small boat surrounded by water and foliage. Emeline looks towards Josephine while the child faces outward- creating a quiet interaction between the two figures. The composition does not treat them as a formal portrait. Instead they are presented as part of a peaceful outdoor experience. The overhanging branches and relatively high viewpoint partly enclose the boat making the scene feel private and almost viewed from above. Tarbell's treatment of light and colour is central to the painting. He used broad, flickering brushstrokes for the water, boat and Emeline's skirt. This allows areas of colour to remain visibly separate. Tarbell also did not completely abandon his academic training. He used smaller, more controlled strokes for Emeline's face and body and carefully defined her hands and Josephine's figure. This combination of Impressionist colour with precise drawing became characteristic of his work. The work is also significant within Tarbell's paintings of his own family. He increasingly used his wife and children as models for outdoor scenes. Josephine appeared in several of these works as Tarbell explored childhood, family life and natural light. Mother and Child in a Boat therefore belongs both to his development as an American Impressionist and to a personal series of family images.