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Somerville and New England History Collection
 
This image is a reproduction of Marguerite S. Pearon's 1924
portrait of one Ruth Walker, which was exhibited at the Atlantic
City Fine Arts Gallery in July 1928. Born in Philadelphia in
1899, Pearson grew up in Somerville, where she lived until 1925.
In her early twenties she studied art at the Fenway School of
Illustration and the Museum School. She was soon a recognized
member of the distinguished group of painters known as the Tarbellites
(so named after their leader, Boston artist Edmund C. Tarbell).
Her first exhibition was at Jordan Marsh in 1922. In June 1924
she had a one-woman show at the Somerville Public Library. The
Globe called the paintings in the exhibition "the work
of a rare genius." Pearson specialized in landscapes and
in paintings of genteel New Englanders engaged in leisure pursuits.
Her paintings were very popular during her lifetime. Sales of
reproductions of her works provided her with financial security.
She died in Rockport, Massachusetts in 1978. While it is unlikely
that any critic would praise her work as highly as the Globe
did in 1924, the reproduction at left demonstrates the technical
skill that won Pearson her place in the Boston artistic community
and earned her the admiration of a generation of Americans.
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