Gallery

Delbert Dana Coombs was born in Lisbon Falls, ME, on July 26, 1850. He was the second son of William Given and Clarinda Ann (Kinsley) Coombs. When Delbert was two years of age, the family moved to New Gloucester, ME and at the age of 12, he developed rheumatic fever. This condition left him in a relatively frail condition for the remainder of his life.

Coombs attended local schools and developed an aptitude for drawing. Although primarily self-taught, Coombs took painting lessons from Scott Leighton, an animal painter, and he studied landscapes with Benjamin Champney and Harrison Bird Brown, becoming Brown’s apprentice between 1869 and 1870. He also studied portrait painting with Albion Harris Bicknell and took still life classes at the Boston Art School.

In 1870, Coombs moved to Lewiston and opened an art studio. Met with early failure, after only one winter, he briefly moved to Portland, ME to operate a photography business with James M. Lamson before returning to Lewiston to pursue a career as a sign painter. Following a stint in Boston, where he maintained a studio for several winters, Coombs eventually took a job at the Lewiston Journal as an illustrator and engraver. He also worked as a caricaturist, developing artwork for political campaigns, which were distributed throughout the country.

Coombs painted actively for over fifty years and offered lessons in painting for twenty-five years. His subjects included portraits, landscapes, cattle, horses, and dogs. Coombs painted in the White Mountains on many occasions, most notably in the Jackson and North Conway areas. The artist faithfully maintained a “Record Book” detailing 723 oil and watercolor paintings which he produced between 1869 and 1929. His documented White Mountain subjects range in date from 1886 to 1925. A typical example of his work is Mount Washington from Jackson, New Hampshire. Coombs’s paintings have been preserved in Maine at the Capitol, the Poland Spring Art Gallery, Bates College, Colby College and at Yale University.

On December 7, 1938, Delbert D. Coombs died in his home at 178 Gamage Avenue in Auburn, ME following a short illness. He was 88 years of age at the time of his passing and left behind a wife and child. Services were held for Coombs at the Plummer & Merrill Funeral Home and he was later laid to rest at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Auburn, ME.

Image of Delbert Dana Coombs

Gravestone

 

Image Credit
The Land and Sea of Five Maine Artists

References
Independent research by the authors
New Hampshire Scenery
Who Was Who in American Art