Arts column: Altar painter captures Bermuda

Taber Sears was born in Boston in 1870 of Cape Cod ancestry. He studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, The National Academy of Design in New York and in Paris with Benjamin Constant, Jean Paul Laurens and Luc Olivier Myerson where his pictures were exhibited in various salons. 

He belonged to many prestigious art societies such as the Salmagundi Club, The Century Association where he was a Trustee and chairman of the Art Committee and The American Watercolour Society. 

From 1924-1927 he was a member of the New York State Art Commission. He was recipient of many awards including the Delano Prize of the New York Watercolour Club, the Bronze Medal for oil painting at the St Louis International Exhibition in 1904.

He is best known as a mural and altar painter, which displayed evidence of his architectural training by blending a strong pictorial style reminiscent of Renaissance artists with a well-balanced composition incorporating the altar structure. Some of his better-known commissions are the Triptych Adoration of the Magi Church of the Intercession, Joshua Crossing the Jordan Grace Church Choir School, Te Deum Rerados Old First Presbyterian Church (all in New York) as well as murals in Los Angeles, Newville Pennsylvania and Brooklyn. 

Elise Outerbridge is curator of the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art. Visit www.bermudamasterworks.com