Darius Cobb

Darius Cobb (August 6, 1834 – April 23, 1919) was an American painter. Cobb was considered to be one of America's best painters during his lifetime, as well as a painter of society portraits, landscape, religious themes and historical costumes. He was also noted as a musician, singer, poet, lecturer, lithographer, and art critic.

Biography

Born in the old Ralph Waldo Emerson House in Malden, Massachusetts, Darius Cobb was a descendant of Henry Cobb of Kent, England, who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1629 on the ship Anne. Darius and his twin brother Cyrus were the sons of the Reverend Sylvanus and Eunice Hale Waite Cobb. The Cobb twins had an older brother, Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., who became a noted author in the late 19th century and wrote as a columnist for the New York Ledger. Eunice Hale (Waite) Cobb, the mother of Darius and Cyrus, founded the first women's club in America, the Ladies Physiological Institute, which promoted health and fitness.

Darius Cobb first received his education through public schools, then, with his twin brother, Cyrus (1834–1903), he attended the Lyman School of East Boston. In the course of his later studies, he and his brother Cyrus studied classics under Professor I. N. Eyers, mathematics at the Norway Liberal Institute in Maine, and oratory under Wyzeman Marshall, while at the same time studying music, art and literature. Darius eventually graduated with high honors from Boston Latin School.

Family life On January l, 1866, the twin brothers were married by their father in a double wedding ceremony to sisters; Cyrus to Emma Lillie and Darius to Laura Marie Lillie. The two girls were lineal descendants of John Alden of Pilgrim fame. Darius and his wife had seven children, including four daughters: Lillie Alden, Cora Stanwood, Estelle Marcy and Edith Harriet; and three sons, Stanwood, Percival Bartlett and Frederick Walter. Of those children, Frederick resided in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, and was shipping agent for the Pettee Machine Works. His home was on Rockland Place in the old John A. Gould House. Cyrus and his wife had five children, including three daughters, Grace, Elsie, and Florence, and two sons, Francis S. and Ernest. Ernest purchased the old Cunningham estate on Richardson Road in 1918 from which he and his wife, Bertha, successfully operated the Arlo Publishing Company which featured children's books. Cyrus Cobb's two best-known public sculptures are the Soldier's Monument (co-created with brother Darius) on the Cambridge Common and the full-length portrayal of Paul Revere at Boston. His design for the Soldier's Monument was selected from about 40 other entries. His sculptured pieces also included a head entitled The Celtic Bard, a heroic bas-relief Prospero and Miranda, a bust of General Butler, a bust of Phillips Brooks and one of local interest, that of Reverend Samuel Francis Smith, author of the patriotic hymn "America". This latter piece was placed in the State House. Cyrus Cobb also wrote and illustrated Sonnets to the Masters of Art. He was a full member of the Boston Art Club.

In 1862 the brothers enlisted in the 44th Massachusetts Infantry, doing service in North Carolina for nine months. In 1870, the two brothers co-authored a book titled The Veteran of the Grand Army, based on their war experiences. Their Civil War service gave them an edge in the design competition for the Cambridge Soldiers Monument, dedicated in 1870. The figure of a soldier at the top of the monument was their first life-size sculpture.

He had the soldier's hat, the worn knapsack, the dented canteen. But when Darius Cobb set out in the 1870s to make a still-life lithograph of Civil War artifacts, he was missing one important element - a tin cup. So, tacked onto the wall in the trompe-l'œil rendering is a scrap of paper with a sketched outline and the words "Dipper Missing". "Each painting has a story like this," said Susan Abele, curator of "Rediscovering Newton Artists, 1850-1950", at the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead.

Works