Vesper Lincoln George (1865-1934)
Vesper Lincoln George was born in East Boston, Massachusetts, June 4, 1865. He received his public school education in Boston, and his art education in New York and at the Julian Academy in Paris. While in Paris he studied under Benjamin Constant, Jules Lefebvre, and Lucien Doucet.
George began is career as an Instructor in the State Normal Art School and Principal of the Evening School of Design in Boston. In 1897, thirty-two year old Vesper George was selected to head the Decorative Art Department at the newly formed Lowell Textile School, where he served for about 10 years. In 1924, he founded the Vesper Lincoln George School of Art in Boston, Massachusetts. Some of his best known mural decorations can be seen in the Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell, the Music Room of Mr. Session’s home; Bristol Trust Company – four large panels representing Commerce, Industry, Finance, and Agriculture; and in the Edward Lee McClain High School, Greenfield, Ohio – three panels, executed especially for the school. George was a member of the Mural Painters Society and of the Architectural Society of New York, the Boston Art Club, and the Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Lowell Textile School, Decorative Art Department
"The close relation Decorative Art bears to the textile industry requires the organization of a Decorative Art Department.
While it is the special object of the school to give instruction in this department of such a character as to develop a knowledge of the laws of decoration and theory of design as applied to textile fabrics of every kind, it is a fact that the fundamental instruction necessary for this is similar to that required for other branches of decorative art, so that students not necessarily intending to follow textile manufacturing are invited and may attend with advantage.
Special arrangements have been made to form classes in freehand drawing and decoration, for the purpose of giving the students general instruction in the theory and practice of decorative art, the instruction afterwards to be devoted to the special branch the student desires to follow. The school will thus fulfill the object of preparing the student in practical designing in any of the branches of decorative art, with special regard to fabrics."
Resources:
Details for “The Textile Industry,” a decorative lunette or painting on glass, 103″ x 60″ presented to the City of Lowell by Joseph Arthur Coram, 1899. The four figures symbolize the most important divisions of the textile art – spinning, weaving, dyeing and designing. The costumes and accessories are of the 15th century. Located in the foyer of the Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell Mass.
