About Ben (Benjamin) Foster

  • Biography

    Benjamin Foster's painting specialty was bucolic scenes of the New England countryside. His style was predominantly Tonalist* with subdued colors and limited tones---almost exclusively autumn colors, muted browns, grays and rusts. In Tonalist tradition, he completed most of his paintings, both oil and watercolor, in his studio and not on location, en plein air.*

    Foster was born in North Anson, Maine, where he spent his childhood, along with his artist brother, Charles Foster. For financial reasons, he did not begin an art career until he was almost age thirty. In 1870, he settled in New York City, and took a mercantile job to support art training. He attended the Art Students League* in New York City, and studied pr...

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