Eben Comins

Eben Comins studied in Boston and continued in Paris at l’Ecole des Beaux Arts. He was then director of art schools in Minnesota and Massachusetts before founding his own in Boston. He was active in Los Angeles from 1917-19 during which time he exhibited locally and taught at the state normal school. He later operated an art school in Washington. Comins’ work included portraits and landscapes, paintings of Native Americans in the southwestern United States, and indigenous tribes of South America.

Comins taught for more than 30 years at the St. Paul School of Fine Arts, Wellesley College, the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, and for 10 years in his own Boston studio. He received a gold medal at the 1915 Panama Exposition for his contribution to the teaching of art.

In January 1933, the Andover Townsman reported from an exhibition of paintings submitted to the art competitions, describing Comins’ The Swimmer as “ a portrait study of a young man in swimming suit, showing fine physical development; strong features rendered in a rather modernistic mode, with an interesting arrangement of light”.