Joseph Rodefer DeCamp

Private Collection (acquired by 1990)

John G. Hagan, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Acquired from the above in 1992 by the present owner

Exh. Cat., New York, Spanierman Gallery, Ten American Painters, 1990, fig. 80, pp. 59-60 and 180, illustrated

Laurene Buckley, Joseph DeCamp: Master Painter of the Boston School, New York, 1995, fig. 73, pp. 125-26, illustrated

New York, Montross Gallery; Boston, Copley Society, Ten American Painters, March - May 1913, no. 10 (titled The Blue Lady)

Like his contemporary William Merritt Chase, Joseph DeCamp studied with Frank Duveneck at the famous Royal Academy of Munich in the 1870s. A long-standing center of arts education at the time, the Royal Academy of Munich was becoming increasingly popular with Americans abroad looking to find an alternative to Parisian educational styles. 

As one of the founders of the Ten American Painters, an influential group of American Impressionists including Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Edmund C. Tarbell, Frank W. Benson, and others, DeCamp was also a revered member of the Boston School. Exemplified in The Blue Veil (The Blue Lady), DeCamp’s portrayal of his sitter reveals his remarkable talent in replicating emotional complexities on his canvases.