Dates

• Existence: 1882-1972

Biography

Robert Byron Tabor (1882--1972) was born in Independence, Iowa, and lived most of his life in the Independence and Oelwein area. He began to paint at the age of 52. He had been a traveling salesman for a Cedar Rapids paint company, when he lost his job during the Great Depression. Desperate for work, he turned to the Public Works of Art Project. One of his first oils painted under the project was chosen as one of the twenty-five best pictures of the 15,000 submitted. The painting, entitled Vendue, depicted an Iowa farm auction of the depression and hung in Franklin Roosevelt's White House office throughout his presidency. Ironically, it disappeared later, never to be recovered. Mr. Tabor's artwork has been exhibited throughout the country, from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.

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