American Impressionist painter Edmund Charles Tarbell is well-known for his landscapes and still lifes. He was a member of the Ten American Painters, an elite group of artists who collaborated to create works that would influence the rest of the world. His paintings hang in the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. His work can be found in many private collections.

While he was a successful portrait artist, Tarbell was not very prolific. He produced portraits for a living, including three presidents. After graduating from grammar school, Tarbell worked as an apprentice in a lithography company. In 1884, he went to the Museum School in Boston to study with Frank W. Benson. Upon his return to Boston, he co-directed the Museum School for two years, where he met his long-term partner, Robert Rauschenberg.