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William Barr (1867-1933) Coastal Dunes O/C, 12" x 16"    ***SOLD***




Painter. Born in Glasgow, Scotland on April 26, 1867. Barr began his art career as a student at the Glasgow School of Art (1895-98) followed by work at South Kensington (London) and Académie Julian in Paris (1904). He then taught at the Paisley School of Art in Scotland for 10 years. 

After earning a reputation in his native land, he first visited California in 1912 and, after joining the throngs who came to San Francisco for the PPIE in 1915, decided to remain. Working from a studio in his home at 311 Lyon Street, he painted romantic and historical interpretations of California including genre scenes, figure studies, and landscapes as well as many portraits of prominent local citizens. 

Having studied the Old Masters, he carried their spirit into his work. Barr died in San Francisco on Feb. 25, 1933. 

Exh: SFAA, 1918-19; Fairmont Hotel, 1930; Calif. State Fair, 1930; City of Paris (SF), 1939 (solo). 

In: SF's Palace Hotel (portrait, President Hoover); CHS; SF Parks Commission (portrait of John McOlaren); SF Union League Club (portrait of John McNab); SF City Hall (portrait of Thomas Boyle); City of Paisley collection. AAA 1919-33; Sam; Ben; AAW; WWC 1928; SF Chronicle, 3-5-1933 (obit).
Source:  Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes, available from the Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA

Arthur William Best (1859-1935) Mt. Tamalpais, O/C, 20 x 24, signed   ***SOLD***


One of the more prominent early 20th-century landscape painters in Northern California, Arthur Best was especially known for his paintings of the Grand Canyon, Arizona desert, and Sierra Nevada mountains.  With his wife, he founded the Best Art School in San Francisco. 

He was born in Mount Pleasanton near Petersboro, Canada, and he and his brothers were musicians with Arthur playing the clarinet. In 1895, the band broke up, and the brothers moved to San Francisco where Arthur and his wife, Alice Leveque Best, established their school at 1625 California Street. 

He became a staff artist for the San Francisco Examiner, and in 1904, did a series of Grand Canyon paintings.  In 1905, he was commissioned by the Southern Pacific Railroad to paint pictures of the Southwest and Mexico.  Many of his paintings were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

He died in Oakland on January 26, 1935.

Source: 
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940



Arthur Beckwith (1860-1930) Springtime O/C, 8" x 18"     ***SOLD***


A landscape and marine painter, Arthur Beckwith was born in London, England and studied at South Kensington School in London before moving to San Francisco in 1884. Many of his paintings were lost in the fire of 1906, and he stopped painting for many years. Later he lived in Marin County in Greenbrae and kept a studio on Montgomery Street in San Francisco. He was a member of the Bohemian Club and the Sequoia Club.

Source: Artists in California, 1786-1940, by Edan Hughes

Joseph Bennett (1889-1969) New York City O/B, 16" x 20", signed    ***SOLD***




Etcher, painter, printmaker. Born in San Diego, CA on March 27, 1889. Bennett spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay area where he was a pupil of Armin Hansen and Arthur Hill Gilbert. The influence of his teachers is seen in his coastals, landscapes, and cowboy genre. He died in Orinda, CA on on Sept. 11, 1969. 

Member: SWA; Calif. PM Society; Calif. Society of Etchers; Walnut Creek AA; Carmel AA. 

Exh: 
Oakland Art Gallery, 1933-39; Paul Elder Gallery (SF), 1933; Bay Region AA, 1935; Calif. PM Society, 1935, 1936; GGIE, 1939; SWA, 1959 (1st prize). 

In: Library of Congress Print Collection.

lnvw; WWAA 1936-41; CSL.
Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940" Available from the Crocker Museum Art Store, Sacramento, CA

Nicolas (Nicholas) Briganti (1861-1944) Still Life, O/C, 28" x 22" Signed    ***SOLD***



Active in New Bedford, Massachusetts between 1893 and 1897, Nicholas Briganti painted luminous landscapes of bucolic scenes as well as figure and human activity.  His name is often confused with Nicholas Brigante (1895-1989) of California, modernist, abstract painter.

Briganti exhibited at the New Bedford Art Club and his work is in the New Bedford Free Public Library.  He taught drawing at the New Bedford Business University.

Sources include: 
Peter Hastings Falk, editor. Who Was Who in American Art

Sarah Bender (De Wolfe) (1852-1935) California Grapes O/C, 18" x 36", signed   ***SOLD***

Painter. Born in Washington, DC on July 10, 1852. Sarah Bender settled in San Francisco in 1865. When the School of Design opened in 1874, she was one of the first pupils to enroll and was greatly influenced there by Virgil Williams. In 1904 she married Harold DeWolfe. (Curiously, some of her 1890s paintings are signed with her married name.) 

The earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed her studio at 509 Sacramento Street taking with it many of her early works. She later had a studio on Hyde Street and a home at 3400 Laguna Street where she died on June 15, 1935. 

Her oils of fruit and flowers qualify her as one of California's finest still-life specialists. 

Member: SFAA; SF Women Artists. Exh: Mechanics' Inst., 1883-97; Calif. State Fair, 1883, 1902; Calif. Midwinter Int'l Expo, 1894; SF Guild of Arts & Crafts, 1904; Sorosis Club, 1913. 

Collection: Oakland Museum. & CSL; AAA 1909; Ber; AAW; DR; SF Chronicle, 2-19-1904 & 1-3-1905 & 6-17-1935 (obit).

Source: Edan Milton Hughes Artists in California 1786-1940,available at the Crocker Art Museum Store, Sacramento, CA


 

Edith Blum (1892-1976) Floral, O/B, 8" x 10" Signed  ***SOLD***




Edith C. Blum was the daughter of a French father and an American mother.  As a painter of the French-American school, Blum lived and worked both in France and the United States. She studied at the Art Students League of New York, The National Academy in New York, The Julienne Academy in Paris and with Constance Curtis at the Rembrandt Studios.  She began to exhibit her work regularly in the 1930's and she was included in the annual exhibitions of the National Association of Women Painters in 1935, 1936 and the 1938, the National Academy in 1936, and the Corcoran Biennial in Washington D.C, in 1937 and 1939, the Pennsylvania Academy in 1940, the Carnegie Institute's International Exhibition in 1943, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. 
 
Lavish, beautiful color was Blum's first love, and she employed a high-keyed palette in all catagories of her work to creat vibrant compositions. During the first half of her career, women were a favorite subject and she captured them in a wide variety of work  from portraits to interiors to peasant women and later she produced some of her best floral still life works.  Private Gallery exhibitions included the Wildenstein Gallery, Milch, Harry Salpeter and Albatross Galleries in New York. 
 
After World War II, Blum lived in France for the most part and exhibited there at the Andre Weill Gallery and Gallerie Andre Maurice in Paris and the Cellier de Clairvaux in Dijon. Still - life and landscapes became the dominant catagories of her work.  Her color and handling of the paint became very lavish, combining both impressionism and expressionism in her own distinctive stile

Source: Covington Fine Arts Gallery, INC. Tuscon, AZ.

Jozef (Josef) Bakos (1891-1977) New Mexico Oil/Board 9" x 12" Signed Lower Left   ***SOLD***


A significant contributor to modernism in the American Southwest, Josef Bakos was a member of "Los Cinco Pintores," Spanish for Five Painters, the first artist group in New Mexico devoted to modernism and bringing art to the people of New Mexico, those who worked in factories, mines, etc. so that they could have a greater appreciation of beauty. 

Bakos was the son of Polish immigrants and grew up in Buffalo, New York. He studied at the Art School at the Albright Art Gallery with John Thompson, who introduced him to Cezanne whom he emulated including becoming a plein-air painter. In 1918, Bakos followed Thompson to Denver, Colorado and worked as an art teacher in Boulder. 

In 1920, Bakos settled in Santa Fe, where he first earned money by carving furniture for La Fonda Hotel and in 1921 founded "Los Cinco Pintores" with Walter Mruk, Willard Nash, Will Shuster, and Fremont Ellis.

Source: The archives of AskArt.com 

Esther Brunk (1898-1989) Mojave O/B, 16" x 20"     ***SOLD***




Born in Salem, OR on May 21, 1898. Esther married Clifford Brunk in Salem in 1916 and then lived in Coos Bay. After moving to California about 1933, they lived for several years in Santa Barbara and often spent winters in Arizona and Mexico. Mrs. Brunk attended art classes at the Santa Barbara State College under Walter Cheever. During WWII she sketched servicemen at the local USO. Originally a watercolorist, she later switched to oils. Her final years were spent in Inyo County, CA as a resident of Bishop and Big Pine. Mrs. Brunk died in the latter on June 23, 1989. Exh: GGIE, 1939; Faulkner Gallery (Santa Barbara); Inyo County Fairs.
Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Death record.

George Sumner Colman (1881-1934) Boats at Sea Oil on canvas, 22" x 28" Signed    ***SOLD***




Born in Elgin, Illinois on Nov. 17, 1881, George Coleman studied at the Art Institute of Chicago.   In 1919 he moved to southern California and settled in Balboa Beach.  He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Orange, CA on July 25, 1939.  

He was the brother of artist Roi Clarkson Colman. His rare works include landscapes and coastal scenes. 

 Member: Painters & Sculptors of Los Angeles; Laguna Beach AA. 

Exh:  Club California (Long Beach), 1927; Pasadena Art Inst., 1927; Long Beach AA, 1929. 
Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
CA&A; AAA 1933; Death Record

Edna Chess (1889-1952) California Coast O/B, 12" x 12", signed LR

Margaret Avice Clapp was born in Connecticut on March 23, 1887.  Clapp studied at USC in 1909.  She then taught for 50 years in the public schools of Los Angeles.  A spinster, she died there on Feb. 1, 1978.
Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
PF; Death Record

Frank Cuprien (1871-1948) Sunset O/b, 8" x 10" Signed

Lockwood DeForest (1850-1932) Monterey, May 3rd 1920 O/B, 9 7/8" x 13 7/8"

Maurice Del Mue (1875-1955) Landscape, 1900 O/B, 9 1/2" x 11 1/2"

Sarah E Bender (DeWolfe) (1852-1935) Violets O/B, 4 1/2" x 12 1/4"

John Carl Doemling (John C. Doemling) (1894-1955) California Coast O/B, 16" x 20" Signed LL

William Doss (William Galen doss) (1873-1957) California Canyon Oil on canvas, 20" x 24" Signed LR

Fannie E. Duvall (1861-1934) California Mission O/B, 12" x 16", signed

Angel Espoy (1879-1963) California Landscape O/B, 8" x 10"

Aldritch Otto Farsky (Otto Farsky (1885-1968) Laguna Canyon Oil on board, 9" x 12" Signed

Stella Amanda Fiske (1872-1957) Lilacs O/C, 18" x 30"

S. A. Fiske (1872-1957) California Desert 12" x 18", O/C, signed

Clyde Forsyth (1885-1962) Landscape O/B, 8" x 12"

Joseph Frey (1892-1977) California Desert O/C, 16" x 20"

Yun Gee (1906-1963) New York City 1935 O/B, 5 1/2" x 7"

Arthur Hill Gilbert (1894-1970) Clouds O/B, 8" x 10"

Sam Hyde Harris (1889-1977) Sycamores O/C, 16" x 20"

John Hilton (1904-1963) Sundown Shadows O/B, 24" 36"

Clarence Hinkle (1880-1960) Garden Mixed Media, 8" x 10" Signed

Alexander Ignatiev (1913-1995) Floral O/C, 24" x 18"

Christian Jorgensen (1860-1935) Grand Canyon, 1910 O/C, 30" x 20"

Marie Kendall (1885-1953) California Coast O/B, 11" x 15" Signed lower right

Aaron E Kilpatrick (1872-1953) Los Osos, California O/C, 16" x 20"

A. Harold Knott (1883-1997) San Luis Obispo O/B, 16" x 20"

Paul Lauritz (1889-1975) California Landscape O/B, 7 5/8" x 9 5/8"

Bertha S. Lee (1869-1937) Monterey O/B, 8" x 6"

Mary Amanda Lewis (1872-1953) Carmel Valley O/B, 9" x 11", signed: M. Amanda Lewis

Philip Matzinger (1860-1942) Morro Bay, 1924 O/B, 20" x 24"

Perry McNeely (1886-1966) Landscape, O/C, 20" x 24"

Ralph Davison Miller (1858-1945) Moonlight, Taos, New Mexico Gouache/board, 16" x 20"

Thomas Nash (late 19th, early 20th cent.) California Landscape, O/C, 22" x 26"

William Henry Price (1864-1940) Sierra Landscape, O/C, 28" x 32"

Hanson Puthuff (1875-1972) Canyon de Oro O/B, 11" x 15"

Kate Newhall (1840-1917) Carmel O/B, 8" x 13", signed

Charles Dormon Robinson (1847-1933) McNear's Point, 1926 O/C, 14" x 18"

Alexander Rosenfeld (1905-1995) New Mexico Landscape O/B, 20" x 24", signed LL

Johannes Reimers (1856-1953) Pastel on board, 11" x 15" Signed

Karl Schmidt (1890-1962) Landscape gouache/board, 9 1/2" x 12"

Davis F. Schwartz (1879-1969) California Landscape O/C, 25" x 30"

Harold Sichel (1881-1948) Carquinez Straits 1926 O/B, 8" x 10"

William Posey Silva (1859-1948) Point Lobos O/B, 16" x 20", dated 1926

Wm. P. Silva (1859-1948) Hill City, TN O/B, 8" x 10", signed

Edward H. Smart (1873-1942) Niagra Falls, 1913 O/B, 12" x 16" Signed with co-joined monogram

Edward H. Smart (1873-1942) Niagra Falls, 1913 O/B, 12" x 16" Signed with co-joined monogram

F. Carl Smith (1868-1955) California Coast O/C, 25" x 30"

Will Sparks (1862-1937) Abandonded Adobe, New Mexico 1923 O/B, 8" x 10"

Lilia Tuckerman (1882-1969) Santa Barbara Street O/B, 8" x 10" Signed

Hernando Gonzallo Villa (1881-1952) La Fiesta O/B, 26" x 22"

Marion Wachtel (1870-1954) California Landscape O/C, 12" x 16"

Nell Walker Warner (1891-1970) Floral O/C, 16" x 20"

Nell Walker Warner (1891-1970) Blue & Gold O/B, 16" x 12"

Nell Walker Warner (1891-1970) Floral O/C, 20" x 24"

Nell Walker Warner (1891-1970) Floral O/C, 26" x 30"

Robert E. Wood, NA (1926-1999) Harbor Scene Watercolor, 22" x 14"

Virginia Woolley (1884-1971) Laguna Canyon O/B, 8" x 10"

Richard Yip (1919-1981) San Rafael, 1944 Watercolor, 14 1/2 x 21"

Si Chen (S. C.) Yuan (1911-1974) House in Carmel, California O/B, 12 1/2" x 13 1/2"

Brother Fidelis Cornelous (1877-1962)

Carmel Mission

Pastel

Sight: 13 1/2" x 19 1/2"

Signed initials



To contact us about this early California artist:

http://california-art.com/page.cfm?pageid=5021&artistid=2



Known as "Professor" Adam, William Adam gave art lessons in his rose-covered cottage at 450 Central Avenue. With a bright and colorful palette of both oil and watercolor, he specialized in views of the Monterey area such as sand dunes, cottage and garden scenes, and the local flora. 

He was born in Tweedmouth, England and studied under Delecluse in Paris, Brydall and Greenlees in Glasgow, and in Buenos Aires before immigrating to Boston in the latter part of the 19th century. 

He moved to California in 1894 and settled in Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula. He died there in 1931. 

He was a member of the Boston Art Club; Glasgow Art Club and exhibited at California State Fairs (medals); the Del Monte Art Gallery, 1907-12; the Berkeley Art Association in 1908; Sorosis Club, 1913; Calif. Artists. His work is in the Silverado Museum at St Helena, California; the Santa Cruz City Museum; the Shasta State Historical Monument and the City of Monterey Collection. 


Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"

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