(1874-1942) Robert Logan was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, where his father John Logan was an entrepreneurial foreman in a watch factory. By developing a new technology for manufacturing hair springs for watches, he revolutionized watchmaking and made the Logan family financially independent, enabling Robert Logan to pursue a career in art without the need to support himself. After completing studies at the Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, Logan enrolled at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. There he studied with Edmund Tarbell and Frank Benson and was introduced to a conservative version of French Impressionism. A talented student, in 1892 he received the school's top drawing prize. In 1895 Logan, like so many American artists of this period, went to Paris to study at the Academie Julian. There his teachers included Louis Joseph, Raphael Collin, Jean-Paul Laurens, and Benjamin Constant; while in Paris he met and studied with American artist Robert Henri. Logan was also influenced by Canadian painter James Morrice, and the two traveled and painted throughout Europe, England, and Northern Africa. Logan exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais and in 1905 was awarded the Prix de Rome. He returned to Massachusetts in 1910, establishing a studio in Waltham and a summer studio in Rockport. A reticent and private man, Logan never sought to advance his painting career professionally. In 1920 he married Ruth Mae Hill but by 1927 he was in declining health and had virtually abandoned painting in favor of woodworking and ironworking. He and his wife had one son, Elmer Murray Logan, who inherited his father's work, keeping it in seclusion until 1960. In 1978 over nine hundred of Logan's drawings and paintings were rediscovered in a warehouse, and interest in his work was revived through several exhibitions.

Biography courtesy of Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, www.antiquesandfineart.com/rking