Tarbell used Impressionist brushwork to lend texture to the model’s feathered hat and elegant blouse, but showed off his fine drawing skills in the softer approach to her hands and face. He belonged to the Boston School of painters, artists who combined Impressionistic technique with an approach to figure painting that prized technical skill and traditional notions of beauty.

• 　The picture at the upper right of the canvas reveals one of Tarbell’s major influences. It is the corner of a painting by the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Jan Vermeer, who was renowned for quiet interior scenes. Rediscovered by artists in the early twentieth century, Vermeer had a significant influence on the Boston School painters.

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In Preparing for the Matinee, the lady who is adjusting her hat with a pearl-tipped hatpin is typical of Edmund Tarbell’s refined subjects. The painting imitates elements drawn from several of Vermeer’s paintings and even includes a portion of Vermeer’s The Music Lesson on the wall. The sitter was Charlotte Barton of Boston. In preparation for her sittings, Tarbell requested the shipment of a settee and gilded mirror from his Boston studio. The composition was developed around these props and exemplifies the lifestyle of Boston Brahmin women. Both idealist and impressionistic in style, the painting is an example of Tarbell’s best work.

 

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