ARTIST: Darius Cobb (Massachusetts, 1834 - 1919)
NAME: Thunderstorm
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: Unmounted. Few minor paint losses. Minor damages to corners. Minor craquelure. No visible inpaint under UV light.
SIGHT SIZE: 9 x 15 inches / 22 x 38 cm
FRAME SIZE: unframed (In-House framing available)
SIGNATURE: lower left
CATEGORY: antique vintage painting
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SKU#: 120350
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BIOGRAPHY:
Darius Cobb was a noted American painter. Cobb was considered to be one of America's best painters during his lifetime, as well as a painter of society portraits, landscape, religious themes and historical costumes. He was also noted as a musician, singer, poet, lecturer, lithographer, and art critic.Born in the old Ralph Waldo Emerson House in Malden, Massachusetts, Darius Cobb was a descendant of Henry Cobb of Kent, England, who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1629 on the ship Anne. Darius and his twin brother Cyrus were the sons of the Reverend Sylvanus and Eunice Hale Waite Cobb. The Cobb twins had an older brother, Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., who became a noted author in the late 19th century and wrote as a columnist for the New York Ledger. Eunice Hale (Waite) Cobb, the mother of Darius and Cyrus, founded the first women's club in America, the Ladies Physiological Institute, which promoted health and fitness.Darius Cobb first received his education through public schools, then, with his twin brother, Cyrus (1834-1903), he attended the Lyman School of East Boston. In the course of his later studies, he and his brother Cyrus studied classics under Professor I. N. Eyers, mathematics at the Norway Liberal Institute in Maine, and oratory under Wyzeman Marshall, while at the same time studying music, art and literature. Darius eventually graduated with high honors from Boston Latin School.Though Darius would become the more famous of the two brothers, Cyrus enjoyed national fame, too. Cyrus Cobb practiced law for six years but later devoted full-time to the arts of painting and sculpting. Cyrus predominantly chose sculpture and Darius painting. Both Cobb brothers spent the greater part of their careers in Boston. In their art work their great instructor was Nature. Darius was art editor/critic of the Boston Traveler, 1872-79, and became prominent in musical and literary circles and on the lecture platform.Later in life the Cobb brothers worked together on a series of paintings illustrating French history for Boston's Tuileries Apartment Hotel. While Cyrus eventually became an accomplished sculptor, Darius was best known for his landscapes and portraits. His portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson hung in the Emerson School in Newton Upper Falls for many years. However, it was religious paintings for which Darius Cobb would become better known. His first significant religious work was entitled Judas, followed by Christ Before Pilate, Abraham, and a magnificent head of Christ called The Master. This painting was completed in 1917 when the artist was 83 years of age. He had worked on it for 34 years before considering it finished. Unfortunately, a few years after his death it was destroyed in a fire.Among Darius Cobb's more noted pictures are portraits of Reverend John Stetson Barry (1858); Louis Agassiz (1875) and Rufus Choate (1876); "King Lear" (1877); "Judas in the Potter's Field" (1877); "Christ Before Pilate" (1878); "For Their Sakes" (1879); "Washington on Dorchester Heights" (1880); portraits of Gen. B. F. Butler (1889),and Rev. Phillips Brooks (1893); "Immortality" (1893); and portraits of John A. Andrew (1894) and Charles P. Clark (1897).Though Cobb was considered to be one of America's better historical painters during his lifetime, his work has not received much attention since his death in 1919. Still, his legacy lives on, as many of his finest pieces are included among many important collections, with specific works on display at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, and the State House in Concord, New Hampshire. Other works on display include Washington at Dorchester Heights, which was hung in the Memorial Continental Hall in Washington; The Old Drummer of the Revolution, which was placed in the Old State House in Boston; the Boston Tea Party, which was hung in the hall of the Ancients and Honorables; and The Death of Cuchullan, which is on display at Boston College. According to The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough, Cobb's paintings also hung in art galleries in England and France.