The Winter Art Show

The gold dome of the Statehouse in the background of this wintry scene identifies it as the Boston Common, painted in 1893 by Edward Simmons. Simmons devoted his career to murals, although between commissions he liked to try landscapes and portraits. In 1897 he joined The Ten, a group of artists that included Childe Hassam and William Merritt Chase. When Simmons exhibited this canvas at the group’s annual show in 1912, it was praised, but not in a way likely to have brought the artist much satisfaction. “The country lost a good landscape painter,” wrote one critic, summing up the general view, “when Edward Simmons ceased to paint as he did in 1893.”