Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931)

Philip Leslie Hale was a leading member of the Boston School of Impressionists, along with Edmund Tarbell, Frank Weston Benson, William McGregor Paxton and Joseph De Camp, among others. Following studies at the Art Students League in New York, Hale traveled abroad to Paris in 1887 to study at the Académie Julian. The following summer, he visited Giverny for the first time, finding inspiration in Claude Monet's gardens and the community of American Impressionists living there. Upon his return from France, his art student at the Museum School in Boston described Hale as "an experimenter...He had worked out a great many things about vibrations of color, pointillism...of getting the most colorful effect with the limitations of paint." (as quoted in Philip Leslie Hale, A.N.A. (1865-1931): Paintings and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Boston, Massachusetts, 1988 p. 5) While he later concentrated on more subtle effects of light in his interiors and portraits, Hale maintained this emphasis on bold colors and Impressionist brushwork for his outdoor subjects for the rest of his career, as exemplified by The Rose Tree Girl.