No. 13536 Aldro Hibbard in the process of painting
The artist Aldro T. Hibbard was born in Falmouth on August 25, 1886, the son of a sewing-machine salesman James Hibbard and his wife Katherine, a well-educated, artistic woman. The family moved first to Roxbury and then to Dorchester while Aldrovandi was still a child. He was a baseball star and also had artistic talents. Hibbard enrolled at the Massachusetts Normal Art School in 1906 and walked the three miles from Dorchester to school each day. He was accepted o the Museum Art School at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1909 and graduated in 1913 with the Paige Traveling Scholarship for two years of study in Europe.
In 1931 the National Academy of Art awarded him $2500 for his painting Rockport in Winter. Eventually Hibbard’s New England landscapes and snowscapes earned him a notable reputation. Hibbard died in 1972 leaving a legacy of American Impressionist paintings in museums and galleries throughout New England.
No. 12957 Hibbard snow scene owned by the City of Boston
.Hibbard graduated from high school in 1906 and studied under Edmund Tarbell at the Museum School.
The US Census show family living at 19 Howe Street in 1900 and 1910. In 1920 Aldro was listed as age 33, unmarried, an art school teacher living in Belmont. His parents were then living at 1234 Commonwealth Avenue. The Globe says Aldro became a resident of Rockport in 1920, possibly after the date for the census.
Hibbard was a star player on the Dorchester High School baseball team and seemed headed for a career in baseball, but he also had a talent for drawing and eventually the paintbrush won out over the bat.
Sources
Boston Sunday Globe. November 23, 2008 Antiques & Collectibles: Will the brush win over the bidder? By Virginia Bohlin. p. H19
Dorchester Reporter, May 3, 2001
“Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design: Vol. 1 : 1826-1926 By David Bernard Dearinger, National Academy of Design (U.S.)
Published by Hudson Hills, 2004 ISBN 1555950299, 9781555950293”