On Grand River

Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Benson began studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where he befriended Edmund C. Tarbell and Robert Reid. By 1891, after studies in Paris, Benson became co-director of the Boston Museum School alongside Tarbell. Upon his return to the states, the artist specialized in portraiture.

This grand scale painting depicts a lone boatman navigating across shallow, sun dappled waters with the aid of a pole or oar. The water is activated with energetic, impressionistic brushwork. The artist once claimed, “I follow the light, where it comes from and where it goes.”