This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Born in Blandford, Massachusetts, Homer Boss was a much praised painter
of western scenes and Indian portraits and teacher in New York City in
the early 20th Century, and was known for breaking away from 19th
century academic standards.
He studied with Robert Henri and
William Merritt Chase at the Chase School in New York, and in
Philadelphia as a student of Thomas Anschutz at the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts.
He was part of "The Fifteen Group,"
students of Henri including Edward Hopper who exhibited together and
rebelled against the strictures of the National Academy.
When
Henri went to Europe in 1910, he turned his Henri School over to Boss,
but when Henri returned, the two had a disagreement, so Boss renamed it
the Independent School and continued there as a teacher. From
1922 to 1941, he taught anatomy classes at the Art Student's League and
also at the Parsons School of Fine Art and the New York School of
Design for Women.
His lectures on anatomy were much sought
after because of his technique of building muscles of plasticine on a
full human skeleton with a nude model demonstrating the muscle action.
Beginning
1925, he went regularly to New Mexico. He completed a series of
Indian portraits and landscapes that likely included Arizona as he had
a reputation for the skill of his desert landscapes. Howard
Devree, in a review of the for the New York Times Art Digest,
March 1, 1933, wrote that Boss "has succeeded in presenting some of the
amazing desert formations, and has produced cloud effects, contours of
rock and brilliance of color calculated to cause the dwellers among
artificial canyons of steel and stone to raise both eyebrows." (Dawdy
44-45)
In 1933, he settled permanently on a ranch in Santa Cruz, New Mexico, where he died of emphysema of 1956.
Sources include:
Peggy and Harold Samuels, The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West
Doris Dawdy, Artists of the American West, Vol. III
| |
Biography from Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery Santa FeTucson:
| Born in Blandford, Massachusetts, Homer Boss pursued art from a very
young age. His family moved to Springfield, MA in the 1890s. Boss
worked there as a die setter for Moore Drop Forge, but left for New
York City in 1900 to find art training.
In New York he studied
at the New York School of Art, which was formerly known as the Chase
School after William Merritt Chase who joined the faculty in 1902. Boss
also studied with Thomas Anschutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Art in Philadelphia.
Also joining the faculty of the New York
School of Art in 1902 was Robert Henri (1865-1929). In 1909,
Henri established his own school of art, named the Henri School of
Art. Homer was one of the "Fifteen Group" of Henri's students
which included Edward Hopper and consisted of those artists who
rebelled against the traditional academic training of the National
Academy. In 1910 Henri secretly sold his school to Homer Boss,
while continuing to provide classroom critiques. Henri then left for
Europe. Upon his return he had a disagreement with Boss who then
renamed the school the Independent School and continued to teach there.
Boss'
two main teachers, Chase and Henri, had very different styles.
Chase believed in delicate detail and visual accuracy, while Henri
encouraged spontaneity and fat brushwork. But Boss used the
training in different techniques to develop his own style.
Starting
in 1925 Boss made regular trips to New Mexico. He earned a
reputation for doing skilled landscapes of the Southwest desert.
In a review printed in the New York Times Art Digest in 1933,
Howard Devree wrote that Boss "has succeeded in presenting some of the
amazing desert formations, and has produced cloud effects, contours of
rock and brilliance of color calculated to cause the dwellers among
artificial canyons of steel and stone to raise both eyebrows."
He
eventually settled on a ranch in Santa Cruz, New Mexico in 1933, and
died there of emphysema in 1956. His work is in numerous
collections which include the Georgia Museum of Art and the Museum of
New Mexico.
Bibliography
1. Peggy and Harold Samuels, The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West
2. Doris Dawdy, Artists of the American West, Vol. III |
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Homer Boss is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
New York Armory Show of 1913
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