Darius Cobb

Darius Cobb (August 6, 1834 - April 23, 1919), painter, was one of the most celebrated figures in Boston during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a painter of society portraits, landscape, religious themes and historical costumes as well as a lithographer and art critic.

Biography

"Battle of Bunker Hill by Darius Cobb, 1880s.

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. Eunice Hale (Waite) Cobb, the mother of Darius and Cyrus, founded the first woman's club in America, called 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; afterward studied the classics under Professor I. N. Eyers, mathematics at the Norway (Maine) Liberal Institute, and oratory under Wyzeman Marshall, at the same time studying music, art and literature, finally graduating with high honors from Boston Latin School.

Family Life

Darius and his wife had seven children, including four daughters: Lillie Alden, Cora Stanwood, Estelle and Edith and three sons, Stanwood, Percival B. and Frederick. Of those children, Frederick resided in Upper Newton Falls, MA, and was shipping agent for the Pettee Machine Works. His home was on Rockland Place in the old John A. Gould House. Cyrus and his wife had five children, including three daughters: Grace, Elsie, and Florence and two sons, Francis S. and Ernest. Ernest purchased the old Cunningham estate on Richardson Road in 1918 from which he and his wife, Bertha, successfully operated the Arlo Publishing Company which featured childrens' books.

A Career in Art

Cyrus Cobb practiced law for six years but later devoted full time to the arts of painting and sculpturing. Cyrus predominately 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. They also received instruction from a relative and pupil of Washington Allston, who imparted to them in their youth many valuable ideas of that master. Cyrus' paintings were of a historical nature and included portraits of General U. S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln and a canvas entitled Warren at the Old South which is hung at the Old South Meeting House in Boston. His sculptured pieces include a head entitled, The Celtic Bard, a heroic bas-relief Prospero and Miranda, a bust of General Butler, a bust of Phillips Brooks and one of local interest, that of Reverend S. F. Smith, author of the Patriotic Hymn "America." This latter piece was placed in the State House. His most noted work was the Soldiers Monument located on Cambridge Common. His design for this monument was selected from about 40 other entries.

In 1862 the brothers enlisted in the 44th Massachusetts infantry, doing service in North Carolina for nine months. In 1870, the two brothers co-published a book titled The Veteran of the Grand Army, based on their war experiences." Their Civil War service gave them an edge in the design competition for the Cambridge Soldiers Monument, dedicated in 1870. The figure of a soldier at the top of the monument was their first life-size sculpture.

He had the soldier's hat, the worn knapsack, the dented canteen. But when Darius Cobb set out in the 1870s to make a still-life lithograph of Civil War artifacts, he was missing one important element - a tin cup. So, tacked onto the wall in the trompe l'oeil rendering is a scrap of paper with a sketched outline and the words "Dipper Missing." "Each painting has a story like this," said Susan Abele, curator of "Rediscovering Newton Artists, 1850-1950," at the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead.

He married Laura Lillie on January 1, 1866, the same day that his brother, Cyrus, married Emma Lillie, sister of Laura M. Lillie. . Darius was art editor/critic of the Boston Traveler, 1872-79, and became prominent in musical and literary circles and on the lecture platform. Darius moved his family to Newton Upper Falls in the early 1880s. For a time the brothers lived side by side, Cyrus at 1129 and Darius at 1134 Boylston Street, on what was then known as Cobb's Hill. Later, he moved to 127A Tremont, the address he was listed at when his biography appeared in the 1918 Marquis Who's Who. In that same Who's Who volume, Cyrus is listed as having his art studoo at the same address: 127A Tremont Street, Boston.

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.

Around 1868 he painted the portrait of Henry Wilson, the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, 1855-1873, who was then Vice President of the United States of America under Ulysses S. Grant. This work hangs in the Morse Institute Library in Natick, Massachusetts. In 1881, Cobb was hired to paint a series of pictures titled: Site of the Boston Medical Library in 1881. Today, this series of paintings are in the collection of the Harvard Medical Library. In 1877, Cobb produced an oil on canvas portrait of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. In 1890, Cobb painted a portrait of Civil War General Benjamin Butler at the State House in Concord, NH. That painting was reproduced as the frontispiece engraving in Butler's autobiography: Butler's Book, which was published in 1892.

Among Darius' more noted pictures are: portraits of 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); portraits of John A. Andrew (1894), and Charles P. Clark (1897).

In 1897, assisted by his brother Cyrus, he decorated the walls of the banquet ball of the Tuileries, Boston, with panels illustrative of French history. Of the nine panels he painted six: "Jeanne d'Arc"; "An Intrigue in the Court of Louis XIII"; "Richeliea and the Mayor of Rochelle "; "A Troublesome Edict of Louis XIV"; "The Storming of the Tuileries"; and "The Downfall of the Second Empire."

In 1898 he painted two large pictures for the town hall at Revere, Massachusetts, the subjects being scenes in the ride of Paul Revere.

Cobb's work manged to find life on a postcard, too. According to The Town Crier (Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts) for May 5, 1911, 10,000 postal cards printed with Cobb's painting of the Last Comrade's Final Tribute were circulated throughout the United States. Though Cobb's work has not received much attention since his death in 1919, 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.

Chronology of Artwork

Year	Title	Medium	Where it is Now
1864	Portrait of a Woman wearing Pearl Drop Earrings	Oil/Canvas 43.2x35.6	Library in Malden, MA
1867	William Ellery Channing	Oil/Canvas	Arlington Street Church, Boston, MA
1872	Evacuation of Boston Harbor	Oil/Canvas 235 x 357	Library in Malden, MA
1876	Northshore Landscape	Oil/canvas	Library in Malden, MA
1877	Portrait of a Lady	Oil/Canvas 76.2x63.5	Library in Malden, MA
1888	Dipper Missing	Oil/Canvas	The Newton History Museum, Newton, MA
1897	John Albion Andrew, Gov. of Mass., 1861-1866	Oil/Canvas	Harvard University Portrait Collection
1902	President William McKinley, 1897-1901	Oil/Canvas/ 30" x 25	Unknown
1906	Still Pond at Mountain's Foot, Autumn Landscape	Oil/Canvas 34.5x45.7	Library in Malden, MA
????	Thunder Storm, Newton Upper Falls	Oil/Canvas	The Newton History Museum, Newton, MA

Auction Results

Auction Date	Price	Title	Auction House, Location
6/8/2005	$???	Portrait of a Woman wearing Pearl Drop Earrings	TBD
12/3/2002	$???	Back Bay, Boston	TBD
8/1/2002	$???	Portrait of a Lady	TBD
1/31/2002	$???	Still Pond at Mountain's Foot, Autumn Landscape	TBD
1/19/2002	$???	New Hampshire Farmhouse	TBD
11/27/2001	$???	Northshore Landscape	TBD
11/5/2001	$???	Stanley Park Dinsmoor, Age Four	TBD
5/12/2001	$???	Figures along a Riverbank	TBD
3/30/1999	$???	Dipper Missing	TBD
9/24/1998	$???	Dipper Missing	TBD
6/13/1998	$???	Summer Landscape	TBD
6/24/1995	$???	Portrait of a young man	TBD
7/10/1993	$???	Figure rowing by moonlight near town	TBD