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Winter scenes exemplified by this large painting are among the most loved and admired themes of Aldro Hibbard's works. Done in the Impressionist style that was popular in America in the early twentieth century, this landscape was mostly painted on-site in the West River Valley of Vermont, near the artist's home. In searching out his subject matter in the frozen woods and villages, Hibbard would load a sled with up to 50 pounds of paint supplies and equipment. Impressionists were known for experiencing some difficult working conditions in painting outdoors, but only Hibbard regularly endured the icy cold for his art. Here the painting done on-site is revealed in the convincing portrayal of the midday light of late winter on the snow, trees, hills and sparkling water. A range of brushstrokes effectively define these different elements: long and thin for the trees, broad and thick for the ice, and small and broken for the moving surface of the water. Hibbard learned his style at the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now the Massachusetts College of Art) and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where he studied with such well-known painters as Frank Benson, Phillip L. Hale, and Edmund Tarbell (who is represented by a painting and a pastel in the College's Permanent Collection). The Museum School trained a generation of painters in the prevailing styles of Academic Classicism and Impressionism; Hibbard excelled in the latter. He received a traveling scholarship from the Museum School that allowed him to study in Europe from 1913 to 1916, where he came into direct contact with the works of the French Impressionists. He went on to teach at Boston University. Hibbard found his subject matter not only in Vermont, but in the landscapes throughout New England and Canada. Summers were spent on either Cape Cod or Cape Ann, where he founded and directed the Rockport School of Drawing and Painting that was later named for him. The Permanent Collection includes another work by Hibbard, a small painting titled Cape Cod Marshes, Provincetown. These two Hibbard paintings are among a group of early gifts by alumni that form the original core of the Bridgewater State College Permanent Collection, now housed in a gallery within the Art Building. Text by Roger Dunn, Professor of Art
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