Aldro Thompson Hibbard Biography

Born in Falmouth, Cape Cod, Hibbard's formal art studies began at Boston’s Massachusetts Normal Art School in 1906 under Joseph DeCamp. He was a remarkable student, and after he completed the four-year course in only three, his teachers encouraged him to continue his studies elsewhere. In 1909, he entered the Boston Museum School of Art, where he studied under two of the most significant art teachers of the early 20th century—Edmund C. Tarbell and Frank W. Benson. In 1913, Hibbard was awarded the Paige Traveling Scholarship to study abroad. Of the four awards that were given, Hibbard was the only American to be so honored. Hibbard traveled through England, France, Spain, Morocco and Italy, but his sojourn was cut short by the First World War.

After returning to America in 1914, Hibbard eventually settled in Provincetown, Massachusetts. As a follower of the Impressionist school, Hibbard loved to paint en plein air, braving the elements in order to capture different effects of daylight on canvas. Claude Monet, the pioneer of this type of light-study, especially interested him:

“Monet made sense. I like his color separation and the effects he got with it, especially in handling light, and I decided that broken color was for me. Their paintings were luminous, like Nature, and that appealed to me.”

Besides his artistic accomplishments, Hibbard was a man of diverse skills and interests, which included his involvement as a teacher at Boston University, a minor league baseball player, political activist, and conservationist. Along with Anthony Thieme and Lester Hornby, he was an important founding member of the Rockport Art Colony.