Peter Roos was born in Lyngby, Sweden, on February 22, 1850. He studied art in his native country before immigrating to the United States in 1872. Roos continued his training at the Massachusetts Normal Art School and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
After arriving in America, Roos worked as a fresco painter and designer before turning to art instruction. During the 1870s, he directed the Boston Art Academy, where students received instruction in drawing, painting, modelling, and outdoor sketching. Advertisements for the school noted a medal awarded at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. In 1876, Roos was appointed Professor of Industrial Art and Design at the University of Illinois, serving until 1889. He later returned to Massachusetts and, in 1896, became Director of Drawing for the Cambridge Public Schools, a position he held for the remainder of his career.
Alongside his educational endeavors, Roos remained active as a working artist. A member of the Boston Art Club from 1874, he painted in oil, watercolor, and pastel, exhibiting landscapes and portraits throughout his career. He also offered lessons in painting and drawing, at times in tandem with his wife. By 1894, Roos maintained a studio at 110 Tremont Street in Boston, where an exhibition of his paintings, pastels, and watercolors attracted favorable notice. His subjects included New England scenery, and he is known to have painted in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, particularly in the Jackson area. Contemporary accounts praised several of his pastel portraits, including likenesses of philanthropist Frank Wood and former Malden (Massachusetts) mayor E. S. Converse. Among his students was the artist Carl G. T. Olson, who later credited Roos with recognizing and encouraging his artistic talent.
Peter Roos died at his home on Sacramento Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 8, 1919, following an illness of nearly five months. Funeral services were held at Shepard Memorial Church in Cambridge, and he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett, MA. Following his death, an exhibition of his paintings and watercolors at the family residence attracted hundreds of former students and admirers. He was survived by his wife, Ella Frances Roos, and their daughter, Annette.
Peter Roos Posthumous Exhibition From Boston Evening Globe
Boston, MA / Saturday, December 17, 1921 / Page 12 / EXHIBIT WORK OF CAMBRIDGE ARTIST / Many View Paintings of Late Peter Roos
During the past week hundreds of men and women, former Cambridge public school pupils, have visited the home of Mrs. Peter Roos, 24 Sacramento St., Cambridge, for the purpose of viewing an exhibition of water colors and oil paintings by the late Peter Roos, for 23 years art director in the public schools of that city. The exhibition was held for the sole purpose of giving Mr. Roos’ former pupils a chance to see some of the late artist’s works. So successful has the exhibition been that it will be continued tomorrow and Monday.
About 200 pictures, covering a wide variety of subjects, are on exhibition. Although studies from nature constitute by far Mr. Roos’ most important and numerous works, they are not the only ones. Several of his copies of famous masters are shown and a picture well worth mentioning is a painting of a dog.
The artist’s collection of California pictures is shown for the first time. “Mirror Lake,” exquisitely set forth in oils, stands out as a most creditable piece of fine coloring, while another picture, showing an evening effect in the Yosemite Valley with the summits of Half Dome and Clouds’ Rest illuminated by a setting sun and the depths of the valley in semidarkness, shows the great ability of the artist in the harmonious blending of nature colors. It is a remarkable study in contrasts and in the effects of light and darkness.
Perhaps the most unusual picture on exhibition is one entitled “El Capitan.” It shows the remarkable shadow of a well-shaped human head thrown on the side of a cliff about 2000 feet in height. This painting was made in the Yosemite Valley and is believed to be the only picture ever made of the phenomenon which is seen there every day at a certain hour when the sun’s rays strike obliquely on the scarred surface of the cliff.
Several water colors of Cambridge and views of Boston from Cambridge are included in the exhibition, as are many pastels, one of which, entitled “Larkspur” is an unusual blending of greens and blues. The exhibition is a pleasing one and well worth attending.
References
Independent research by the authors
Who Was Who in American Art