Robert Tardiff

Robert Austin Tardiff (1914–1997) was an American artist whose precise watercolor renderings of everyday objects form a small but valuable part of the nation’s visual record of folk and decorative arts. Born on February 4, 1914, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, to Marion Ivan Tardiff and Vivian Lyle Gates Tardiff, he grew up in a family of French-Canadian descent in central Wisconsin. After attending Central State Teachers College in his hometown, Tardiff moved to Milwaukee, where he studied at the Layton School of Art. By 1936 he was already listed among Milwaukee’s art students, honing the meticulous draftsmanship that would define his known work.