Painter, etcher, illustrator, lithographer, muralist, sculptor, teacher.

 

Paul Whitman was an accomplished and versatile artist who played an active role in the arts community of the Monterey Peninsula for twenty-four years.

 

Whitman was born in Denver, CO on April 23, 1897.  He spent his boyhood on his father’s ranch in the Texas Panhandle, and later moved with his family to St Louis, MO. After serving as a lieutenant in the Field Artillery in WWI, he joined his stepfather’s insurance business in St. Louis in 1921. Later that year he married and by 1928 their three children had been born.

 

Abandoning the insurance business in 1926, he moved with his family to California. After settling in Carmel, he embarked upon a long and successful art career. He had taken art classes at the University of Washington in St Louis and, after moving to the Monterey Peninsula, further studied with Armin Hansen.

 

Like Hansen, Whitman frequently depicted waterfront life in his etchings. However, while Hansen tended to focus on the human activity of waterfront, Whitman gravitated toward intricate scenes of piers and wharves that challenged his considerable drawing skills.

 

By 1928 Whitman was beginning to gain notice in the art world. He exhibited as a member of the California Society of Etchers and received a prize from the International Society of Etchers. Whitman also began to work in watercolor, and in 1929 the Smithsonian Institution hosted an exhibition of his work that included both etchings and watercolors.

 

Whitman taught locally at the Robert Louis Stevenson School and was a consultant to the State Department of Education.

He died in Pebble Beach, CA on Dec. 11, 1950. The artist painted in several media but is best known for his watercolors of the Monterey area, fishing boats, and Mexico.

 

Member: Calif. Society of Etchers, Carmel Art Association.

Exhibited: Int’l Society of Etchers (LA), 1928 (prize); Smithsonian Inst., 1929; Calif. State Fair, 1947 (prize); Monterey Museum of Art, 2002.

 

In: CSL; Stanford University; Monterey Museum of Art (murals); Metropolitan Museum; Art Digest, Nov. 1929; AAA 1929-31; WWAA 1936-41.

 

Source: Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes; MMA/Reflections-The Art of Paul Whitman, 2002; interview with family members.

A landscape painter, William Silva was an important art world figure in Tennessee and also in California, where he moved in 1913 and for thirty-five years devoted himself to painting cypresses, eucalypti, dunes, and coasts.

He was born in Savannah, Georgia, and studied at Catham Academy and engineering at the University of Virginia. He inherited the family chinaware business, which he ran successfully for thirty years until he began painting at age 50.

In 1887, he moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and there became known as "the finest artist at the turn of the century" (Gerdts "Art Across America" v. III). He painted in an impressionist style and did many panoramic views of Chattanooga as well as paintings of the pine forests near Savannah. Initially he pursued his chinaware business there but in 1894, began to take art instruction.

Encouraged by his wife, he retired from his business in 1907 and enrolled at the Academy Julian in Paris as a student of Jean Paul Laurens. He also painted with American artist Chauncey Ryder. Recognition came quickly, and he had his first solo exhibition in 1909 in Paris at the Georges Petit Gallery.

That same year he returned to Chattanooga and a moment of great fame was the winning of the silver medal in 1910 at the Appalachian Exposition in Knoxville where he displayed seventy canvases. He then moved to Washington D.C. where he was active in the Society of Washington Artists until he moved to California in 1913.

He built a studio off Carmelita Street in the sand dunes but continued to exhibit with the Southern States Art League and also maintained close ties with his birthplace, Savannah, where in 1917 a solo exhibition was held at the Telfair Academy. He was a member of numerous organizations including the California Art Club and the Salmagundi Club.

He died on February 10, 1948.

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

One of the leading artists in the Carmel area between 1917-1945. A versatile artist painting in oil, watercolor and charcoal, his bold, vibrant paintings of figures, landscapes, fantasies and portraits were very avant-garde.

 

John O’Shea was born in Ballintaylor, Ireland. At age 16 he immigrated to NYC. He was in his mid-teens or early twenties when he studied at the Adelphi Academy for two years and at the ASL. He worked a short time at Tiffany & Company as an artisan-engraver. In the spring of 1913 O’Shea moved to Pasadena and began his active artistic career. Two exhibitions, one at the studio of Kenneth Avery and another at the Friday Morning Club (LA) were well received and extolled by Antony Anderson describing O’Shea’s works as “wonderfully beautiful interpretations of our landscape, full of vibrating light and color”.

 

In 1917 O’Shea settled on the Monterey Peninsula. While maintaining a studio in his home, he became active with the art community in both Carmel (served as director-president of the Carmel Art Association) and San Francisco. Two years after his marriage to Molly Shaughnessy in 1922, the couple built a home near Smugglers Cove in Carmel Highlands. The O’Shea’s led a very active social life. One of their neighbors was artist Theodore Morrow Criley who would become O’Shea’s closest friend and painting companion. Other friends included poet Robinson Jeffers, photographer Edward Weston, artists Thomas Parkhurst, William Clothier Watts, William Ritschel and Burton Boundey (who had two one-man shows with O’Shea).

 

O’Shea continued to paint and having successful exhibititions, often solo, for many years receiving much praise for his work. Probably the highest artistic tribute was paid him by the Director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, who was “sure that the gorgeous color and design of Mr. O’Shea’s canvases will make a tremendous impression with the San Francisco public,” and arranged for a showing of sixty-three of his works at the Legion in 1934.

 

Although trained in the East, it was through his travels in the Southwest, the South Seas, Mexico, and Hawaii, that O’Shea developed his unique style – a blend of American Impressionism, realism, and abstraction. A highly versatile artist, he left a legacy of over five hundred works in oil, watercolor, and charcoal. John O’Shea died at home on April 29, 1956 at the age of eighty.

 

Member: American WC Society; Bohemian Club; Calif. Art Club; Carmel Art Association (director, 1934; president twice, in 1937 and 1938); Carmel Arts & Crafts Club; SFAA;  The New Group, Monterey (CA); Society for Sanity in Art

 

Exhibited: Friday Morning Club (LA), 1914 (solo);  Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, 1917; SFAA, 1918; Helgesen Gallery (SF) 1^st one-man exhibition; LACMA, 1919-21; Kingore Galleries (NYC), 1921; Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, 1922; Grace Nicholson Galleries  (Pasadena), Temple Art Gallery (Tucson), Beaux Arts Galerie (SF), 1928; CAA, 1929; Denny-Watrous Gallery (Carmel), 1931; 1933; CPLH, 1934; E.B. Crocker Art Gallery (Sacramento), 1935; Del Monte Art Gallery, 1936, 1940; William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts (Kansas City, Missouri), 1937; GGIE, 1939; Calif. State Fair, 1941 (1^st prize); MPMA; Walnut Creek (CA) Civic Arts Gallery, 1986 and Carmel AA, 1993 (retrospectives).

 

In: Mills College (Oakland); Harrison Library (Carmel); MPMA; Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (Dublin, Ireland); Bohemian Club (SF); Irvine Museum (CA).

 

 

Source: Plein Air Painters of California/The North (Weshphal); Artists in California 1786-1940 (Hughes); John O’Shea and Friends/Carmel Art Association, 1993.

Beloved Carmel artist and early-day resident of Monterey, Elizabeth Strong is best known for her small paintings of animals. Since she specialized in paintings of animals (especially bird dogs), she was sometimes called “the Rosa Bonheur of America.”

 

Born in Westport, CT on February 1, 1855, she was the daughter of a Congregational minister. The Strong family lived in Hawaii as part of a missionary movement until 1858 when they settled in Oakland, California.

 

Elizabeth began her art studies in San Francisco at the School of Design under Virgil Williams and, during her two years there, won gold and silver medals for her work. In 1879 she sketched on the Monterey Peninsula while sharing a home with her brother Joseph D. Strong Jr. a well-known portrait and landscape artist. Through the sales of her pictures of pets of wealthy patrons she was able to save enough money for a lengthy stay in Paris. During the next eight years there she had further study with animal painter Emile van Marcke.

 

Returning to the U.S., she studied at the Art Student’s League of New York City under William Merritt Chase (1892-93) and then returned to Paris where she lived until 1905. While there, she attended the Jeune Fille School of Art and also ran a small school of her own. She exhibited often at the prestigious Paris Salon.

 

From Paris, she returned to California and lived in Berkeley until 1920. After settling on the Monterey Peninsula, she was active in the local art scene joining the painting colony headed by Jules Tavernier. She died in Carmel on October 30, 1941.

 

Member: SFAA; Sketch Club (SF); Carmel AA (cofounder, 1927); Carmel Arts & Crafts Club.

 

Exhibited: SFAA, 1875-1912; Mechanics’ Inst. (SF), 1875-79; Calif. Midwinter Expo, 1894; Calif. State Fair, 1894, 1930, 1935; Paris Salon, 1901; Berkeley AA, 1908; Sketch Club, 1909; Alaska-Yukon Expo (Seattle), 1909 (silver medal); Del Monte Art Gallery, 1910.

 

In: Monterey Peninsula Museum.

 

Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"; Helen Spangenberg, YAMP

“A painter of California, one of the very few native-born, we have in Sydney Yard, who, from an early meticulous manner, developed a broader and decorative delineation of the northern California landscape. His medium was watercolor, and his sincerely studied and finely patterned small canvases are distributed through many California homes. His work is charming without being weak.” (The History & Ideals of American Art by Eugen Neuhaus, 1931).

Born 1855 in Rockford, Illinois, Yard began his art studies under George J. Robertson. He later studied in the British Isles where he mastered English watercolor techniques under the instruction of Royal Academician Sutton Palmer.

In 1882, after achieving some recognition in New York, Yard moved to California. For the first three years he ran several photography studios in San Jose and Palo Alto with artist friend Andrew Putnam Hill. During this time he exhibited several paintings at the San Francisco Art Association.

In 1904 Yard left San Jose and began splitting his time between studios in San Francisco and Carmel-By-The-Sea settling permanently in Carmel in 1906. A pioneer Carmel artist, Sydney Yard established one of the first studios on Lincoln and Seventh Streets.  His wife was active in the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, and Yard exhibited frequently at The Del Monte Gallery as well as at several galleries in the San Francisco Bay Area until his death in 1909.

Best known for his watercolors, his works are primarily landscapes and coastal scenes of the Monterey Peninsula. He died there at the height of his career at the age of 54.

Exhibited: SFAA, 1896-1908; Starr King Fraternity (Oakland), 1905; Berkeley AA, 1908; Oakland Home Club, 1908; Alaska-Yukon Expo (Seattle), 1909; Del Monte Art Gallery, 1909-1912.

In: CHS; Harrison Library (Carmel); Santa Cruz City Museum; Monterey Peninsula Museum. YAMP; H&I.

Source: YAMP/Spangenberg; Artists in California, 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes; Artists at Continent’s End: The Monterey Peninsula Art Colony, 1875-1907 by Scott A. Shields.

William Keith became in the late 19th and early 20th centuries a leading Northern-California landscape artist.  In fact, he was so well known that he is referred to as the "Dean of California painters" and "California’s Old Master."

 

Born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Keith came to New York with his family and, apprenticed to a wood engraver.  In 1859, he moved to San Francisco where he worked for an engraver and later set up his own engraving business.  Studying with Samuel Marsden Brookes in 1863, he determined to become a painter.

He married artist Elizabeth Emerson and did watercolor painting with her guidance.  In 1868, he became a full-time painter, and that same year was commissioned to paint scenes along the Columbia River including Mount Hood.  By August 1869 he had sold enough paintings to finance an extended journey to the East Coast and Europe including Dusseldorf, Germany throughout most of 1870, studying with Albert Flamm.  After a visit to Paris, he expressed great admiration for "the modern school of French landscape painting including the Barbizon School.

During the winter of 1871-1872, the Keiths lived in Boston where they shared a studio with William Hahn.  Keith’s work received critical acclaim there and in New York at the National Academy of Design.  In 1872, he returned to San Francisco. A friendship with naturalist John Muir exposed Keith to many remote places and in-depth knowledge of nature. During the 1870s, he painted several "epic" eight by ten-foot High Sierra views.  He also visited Alaska, and his paintings of Alaska were exhibited upon his return to San Francisco in a show at the Bohemian Club, titled ‘Dreams of Alaska’.  Keith’s Alaska works are significant because they are not close transcriptions of actual scenery, but rather are fantasies inspired by Alaska.  They are important as they represent a major break from the documentary tradition in landscape painting of Alaska, as they show an interest in capturing its spirit versus just the topography.

 

In 1891, he shared his studio for several weeks with East Coast Tonalist George Inness, Sr. [1825-1894]. Both men painted in a similar style and were followers of the mystical teachings of Swedenborg. Among the locations where Inness and Keith painted together were Monterey and Yosemite, and it was reported they discussed art from every possible angle. Under Inness’ influence, Keith painted more than ever in a Barbizon-influenced vein with many sunset and twilight scenes.

Keith’s first wife died in 1882, and in 1883, he married Mary McHenry, the first woman graduate of Hastings Law School.  They soon went to Europe, and Keith studied portrait painting in Munich with consultations from J. Frank Currier and Carl Marr for two years.  Keith then settled for the remainder of his life in Berkeley. His studio was in San Francisco where he commuted daily, painted prolifically, and taught many classes, mostly for aspiring female artists.

By the early 1900s, Keith was likely one of the wealthiest artists in the United States and certainly earned the most money of any California-based artist. His romanticized views of nature found much favor among the culturally aspiring citizens of San Francisco and hung in many foyers and dining rooms in their elegant homes.  People from all over the world sought out his studio where it was said that he would specially select a painting for a client from behind a black velvet curtain, order everyone to be quiet, part the curtains, and set the work on a easel, flooded in light.  It was unthinkable not to buy a painting on these occasions.  Many of his paintings were shown in New York at the Macbeth Gallery, and in 1898, he had a special exhibition in New York.

He completed thousands of paintings and drawings, and many of them were lost in his studio in the fire of 1906. Keith died April 13, 1911, and his work is in most of the institutions representing major California artists.

Honors accorded him include an entire room devoted to his work at the PPIE of 1915; the Keith Gallery was opened in 1934 at St Mary’s College in Moraga and has a collection of Keith paintings established by his biographer, Brother Cornelius; and in 1956 the William Keith Memorial Gallery opened at the Oakland Public Library. Streets in Oakland and Berkeley are named for him.

 

Exhibited: Calif. State Fair, 1872-94 (medals); SFAA, 1872-1911; Mechanics’ Inst. (SF), 1874-1911 (medals); NAD, 1882; World’s Columbian Expo (Chicago), 1893; Calif. Midwinter Expo, 1894; London, 1897 (solo); Pan-American Expo (Buffalo), 1901 (bronze medal); Lewis & Clark Expo (Portland), 1905; Del Monte Art Gallery, 1907-12; Alaska-Yukon Expo (Seattle), 1909 (gold medal).

 

In: LACMA; CHS; CGA; MM; Nevada Museum (Reno); Crocker Museum (Sacramento); AIC; Oakland Museum; Southwest Museum (LA); NMAA; Mills College (Oakland); UC Berkeley; Stanford Univ.; Boston Museum; Bohemian Club; De Young Museum; Calif. State Capitol; Cleveland Museum; Carnegie Inst.; Brooklyn Museum; Orange Co. (CA) Museum; Jonathan Club (LA).

 

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

Mary Amanda Lewis was born in San Francisco, California, on September 19,  1872, the daughter of Cornelia Edgerton and Franklin Jay Lewis. Raised in an atmosphere of culture as a youth she was exposed to art and music through her artistic parents who were fine musicians.

 

As a child she studied art and music with her father and in the 1890s studied painting with William F. Jackson at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento, California. During the summer she attended classes taught by William Merritt Chase in Carmel in 1914.

 

Coming from a long line of musicians, she was also an accomplished cellist who performed for five years at the Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. Her music career enabled her to perform outside of Sacramento in places such as Lake Tahoe and Paso Robles, and these areas inspired many of her paintings.

 

An Impressionist, her works show the influence of William Merritt Chase.  Mary Lewis died in Sacramento, California in 1953 having spent most of her life there.

 

Exhibited: California State Fair, 1891-95; Del Monte Art Gallery, 1910, 1912; Sacramento Hotel,1911 (with her father); Sacramento Art League, 1912; Golden Gate Park Memorial Museum, 1915; SFAA, 1916, 1917; Kingsley Art Club, Crocker Art Gallery, 1930-47.

 

In: Society of California Pioneers; Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento).

 

 

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

Painter, illustrator, muralist.  Born in Cheswick, PA on Oct. 4, 1887.  After drawing and painting during his childhood, at age 15, Mays began his art studies at the Cheshire Academy in Connecticut.  He further studied at Oberlin College, Hawthorne School in Provincetown, and the Art Students League of New York City under William M. Chase.

His first art exhibition at age 23 in NYC was such a financial success that he was able to further his art studies in Paris at Academies Colarossi and Grande Chaumière, and London’s Slade School.

In 1915 he came to San Francisco to assist Albert Herter on murals at the St Francis Hotel and, in that year, visited Carmel where he was to live intermittently for the rest of his life. Mays traveled constantly and made several trips to Europe from 1924-33. Returning from Europe in 1933, he remained on the East Coast for three years, and fulfilled many commissions for the Public Works of Art Project.  During this period President Roosevelt selected his painting The Jungle to hang in the executive office of the White House.  In 1936 he returned to California and bought a house in Carmel.  The years 1947-53 were spent with relatives in Bryn Athyn, PA while teaching at the Carnegie Institute.  Mays returned to his Carmel home in 1953 and continued painting there until his death on June 30, 1961.

His paintings of landscapes and animals are distinguished by the treatment of light and have a dream-like, mystic quality.

Member: Carmel AA (charter member); Artists Equity; Natl. Society of Mural Painters.

Exhibited: Palace of FA (SF), 1920; Pasadena Gallery, 1925; Whitney Museum, 1933; San Diego FA Gallery; Stendahi Gallery (LA).

Murals: Dudley P. Allen Museum (Oberlin, OH); Treasury Dept. (Philadelphia); Bryn Athyn (PA) Library; Paramount Theatre (LA); Graumans Theatre (LA).

In: Sam; AAW; WWC; WWAA 1936-59; Art & Artists on Monterey Peninsula; YAMP; Monterey: The Artists View 1925-1945.

 

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

Paul Dougherty became a widely-known painter of dramatic marine scenes and desert landscapes.

Dougherty was born in Brooklyn, New York, and the eldest of six children. He came from a prominent New York family; and his father, J. Hampden Dougherty, a lawyer and leader of the New York Bar, expected his son to follow in his footsteps. All of his life Paul had been interested in art. He sketched and painted constantly, and by the age of eighteen had one of his paintings accepted in the annual exhibition of the National Academy. Regardless of his early success in art, Paul graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1896 and New York Law School in 1898. But he was never to practice. He changed professions to art and studied with Robert Henri and in Europe for five years from 1900 to 1905 sketching and painting in London, Paris, Munich, Venice and Florence.

While in Paris he met his first wife and they were married in 1902. Returning to America they settled in New Jersey. Paul Dougherty then painted along the coast of Maine, and his paintings were compared to those of Winslow Homer. Of his success, John Sloan said: "Everything came to him; all his pictures sold, he won all the prizes. The rich delighted to honor him, and his wives were glamorous" (Falk).

In 1907, he was elected a Member to the National Academy of Design in New York. He experimented with sculpture but settled on marine paintings, primarily focused on the ocean. Arthritis forced him to seek a milder climate, and in 1928, he began spending his winters in Arizona where he painted desert landscapes and mountains. In 1931, he moved to the Monterey Peninsula in California and set up a permanent home and studio in the Carmel Highlands. He became actively involved in the formation of the Carmel Art Association. He was a member of the Board of Directors from 1931 to 1941, serving as President in 1940.

His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Joslyn Museum in Omaha; and the Fort Worth Museum in Texas as well as many other museums.

Sources: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"; Our First Five National Academicians/Carmel Art Association, 1989

Painter, etcher, muralist, illustrator

 

            One of California’s most important artists, Will Sparks is nationally known for his jewel-like paintings of the California missions and nocturnal adobe scenes.

 

Born in St. Louis, Missouri on  February 7, 1862. Sparks was raised in St. Louis and attended public schools there. He began painting when quite young and sold his first painting at age 12.

 

After studying medicine and anatomy at the St. Louis Medical College, he opted to pursue an art career. He then studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and later in Paris at Academies Julian and Colarossi under Gerome, Harpignies, and Bouguereau. While in Paris, he supported himself as an anatomical illustrator for Louis Pasteur. Sparks sketched in and around Bordeaux and was greatly influenced by Cezanne and the Barbizon painters.

 

After his European hiatus, he returned to St. Louis and exhibited in the St. Louis Exposition of 1886. At the Expo he met Mark Twain whose vivid description of California convinced Sparks to move there. After living briefly in Cincinnati and Denver, he moved to California in1888. Sparks spent three years working for newspapers in Stockton and Fresno and then settled in San Francisco. Continuing newspaper work, he worked for the Evening Call as a writer-illustrator. While maintaining a studio in San Francisco at 163 Sutter Street, he taught anatomy at UC’s medical school (1904-08) and was one of the founders of the Del Monte Art Gallery in 1907. Sparks died in San Francisco on March 30, 1937.

 

Member: Bohemian Club; SFAA; Sequoia Club; Calif. Society of Etchers.

Exhibited: SFAA from 1894; Del Monte Art Gallery (Monterey), 1907-25; Alaska-Yukon Expo (Seattle), 1909.

 

In:  California Palace of the Legion of Honor; California Historical Society; Huntington Library (San Marino); Crocker Museum (Sacramento); Bohemian Club (mural, The Home); Minneapolis Museum; Society of California Pioneers; De Young Museum; St. Louis Art Club; St. Louis Museum (portrait); Bordeaux (France) Museum; Toledo Ohio Museum; San Diego Museum; Honolulu Museum.

 

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