By the time he received this commission, Tarbell was a leading member of the Boston School of artists, specializing in portraits and impressionist landscapes and interiors. He painted the portrait of President Coolidge in Swampscott, and in his New Hampshire studio during the summer of 1925. This remains one of the treasures of the Collection: an elegant full-length portrait from life of the sitting president executed in Tarbell's mature style, with great subtly in the handling of many shades of black and white.
Although commissioned by the Commonwealth to mark his term as governor, the portrait was installed in the Senate to honor Coolidge as the only Senate President of Massachusetts to rise to the presidency of the United States.