Anders Aldrin (1889-1970)
Anders Aldrin was born in Sweden in 1889. He came to the U.S. in 1911, where he studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco before settling in Los Angeles. His woodcuts date from between 1928 and 1937, when he abandoned printmaking for painting. Aldrin was greatly influenced by Frank Morley Fletcher and Japanese prints. He had many exhibitions and is represented in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Library of Congress, and Art Institute of Chicago.
Valenti Angelo (1897 – 1982)
Book illustrator and author, Angelo was born in Italy and immigrated to the United States as a young boy. Living in New York he became a book illustrator producing works for over 140 books. Occasionally he produced individual prints such as Juniper Tree.
Dean Babcock (1888-1969)
Following study at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Babcock made his home and studio in a remote log cabin in the Long’s Peak region of Colorado. There he pursued his interest in wood-block printmaking by capturing the dramatic landscape of the region. In most of his color woodcuts, he did not use a key block to delineate color fields. This produced a softening of the transition of colors in his prints. His works are in the permanent collections of the Denver Museum of Art.
Born in Dorsetshire England, Bartlett was a British artist who worked in his later years in Hawaii, where he settled permanently in 1917. He studied at The Royal Academy where his interests were primarily in watercolor and later at The Academy Julien in Paris. In 1913 Bartlett went on an extended trip to India for four years. He also visited China, Japan and Kashmir. His color woodcuts, drawn from places he visited in India and Asia, depict many of the travelers’ traditional destinations of the day. He was equally accomplished in color etching as well as color woodcuts, for which he is perhaps better known. In 1917 Bartlett went to Hawaii where he created his last etchings and color woodcuts. His works are in the Honolulu Academy of Art.
Gustave Baumann (1881-1971)
After studying art at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Baumann returned to his native Germany to study the art of the color woodcut. By 1909 he was back in the United States working in an artist’s colony in Nashville, Indiana where he began working on a series of ambitiously large and complex color woodcuts. His large body of work depicts the American landscape from Provincetown to the Pacific coast. He made a large number of color woodcuts while in New Mexico where he settled in Santa Fe in 1918. In 1952 he was given a major exhibition of some 170 prints at the Museum of New Mexico Art Gallery. His works are in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Library of Congress, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Jessie Arms Botke (1883-1971)
Botke was born in Chicago, where she studied at the School of The Art Institute. She became well known as a painter of birds and landscapes, though she retained her early interest in printmaking. She collaborated with her husband Cornelis on murals and other commissions. She is represented in the Chicago Municipal Gallery and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Wendell Corwin Chase (1897-1988)
A naturalist as well as an artist, Chase was born in Seattle, Washington. He and his brother Waldo taught themselves the art of wood-block printmaking in the Japanese tradition. Chase’s love of nature prompted him to live in a tepee in the Pacific Northwest for a period of time. Their color woodcuts largely depict the rugged Pacific Northwest mountains and outdoors.
Elizabeth Colwell (1881- c.1954)
Born in Michigan, Colwell studied under B.J.O. Nordfeldt in Chicago and was a member of the Chicago Society of Etchers, where she participated in many exhibitions between 1913 and 1918. At the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, she won a bronze medal for printmaking. Colwell was accomplished in design and lettering for book illustration and commercial purposes. She designed a number of children books from cover to cover early in her career. She is represented in the print collections of The Art Institute of Chicago and the New York Public Library.
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922)
The central figure in American color wood-block printmaking at the turn of the century, Dow was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts and studied at the Academie Julien in Paris. He exhibited in several Paris salons in the 1880’s and the Universal Exposition in 1889, before returning to the United States. In the 1890’s he worked in the Japanese art department of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston under Ernest Fenollosa and began creating color woodcuts in the traditional Japanese style. Dow’s color woodcuts were invariably small in size, and he constantly experimented with color variations, inking his blocks differently to suggest different seasons or times of day. He called his method “painting with wooden blocks”. His first exhibition was in 1895 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He exhibited widely, including at the P.P.I.E (1915), the Detroit Institute of Arts (1919), and was the subject of a major retrospective at The Smithsonian Institution (1977-78). He is widely known for his important instructional book Composition published in 1899, and his teaching at Teacher’s College Columbia University, New York, and the Ipswich Summer School. Dow’s innovative prints were far-reaching in their influence and as an educator his aesthetic theories, writings, and teaching methods influenced generations of artists in America. He is represented in many major museums including The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Columbia University, San Francisco Art Museums, and the Ipswich Historical Society.
Elbert Eastmond (1876-1936)
Eastmond studied at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and later under Pedro J. de Lemos at Stanford University. After studying in Europe, Eastmond returned to his native Utah at the outbreak of World War I, and became a well-known painter, set designer and printmaker. He became head of the art department at Brigham Young University, a position he held until his death.
Frank Morley Fletcher (1866-1949)
Director of the art department at Reading University College in England, Fletcher developed an interest in Japanese style color wood-block cutting from a pamphlet written and published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1892. He revitalized the color wood-block process in England and helped to support the revival already under way in the United States. He was invited in 1923 to Santa Barbara, California, to found an art school, through which he inspired a generation of California artists, including Katharine Van Dyke Harker. He is perhaps best known here in the United States for his three major woodcuts made in California. His works are in The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Eliza Draper Gardiner (1871-1955)
A painter and printmaker, Gardiner studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and in Europe. Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, she was active in numerous professional organizations including the Provincetown Art Association, Print Makers Society of California, and the Philadelphia Woodcut Society. Gardiner is represented in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Art and the Bibliotheque Nationale.
Frances H. Gearhart (1889-1957)
Born in Illinois, Gearhart studied art with Charles H. Woodbury and Henry R. Poore. She taught history in Los Angeles but eventually quit teaching to devote her time to printmaking. Her home became a meeting place for the Print Makers Society of California and an exhibition space devoted to color woodcuts. Gearhart’s color woodcuts are drawn from her two life long interests: her native California landscapes with their rugged mountains and streams, and her well-known garden at her home in Pasadena. Gearhart’s work is in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University and many other institutions across the United States.
May Gearhart (1872-1951)
One of three sisters, all active in the art profession, May was the middle sister of the family. While her elder sister Frances is best known for her color woodcuts, May chose to work primarily in color etching. Primarily an art teacher, she taught for thirty-six years in the Los Angeles school system, and in 1923 she had her first public exhibition with her sister Frances. Both sisters were active in the California Printmakers Society where they often exhibited together. Her works are in The Los Angeles Museum of Art and The Smithsonian Institute.
Franz Geritz (1895-1945)
Franz Geritz was born in Budapest, Hungary. He moved to the U.S. and studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he taught block printing through the University of California Extension. He was an active printmaker as well as a writer. He won numerous awards, and his work is represented in the collections of the Library of Congress, Brooklyn Museum, and the Los Angeles Public Library.
Norma Bassett Hall (1889-1957)
Painter, printmaker and teacher, Hall was born in Halsey, Oregon. She studied at the Portland Art Association, the School of The Art Insitute of Chicago and abroad. After graduating from the Art Institute in 1918, Hall returned to her native Oregon to establish a studio in Portland. She then travelled to Europe for two years where she made color woodcuts in Great Britain before returning to the U.S. where she eventually settled in Kansas. Her prints, all landscapes, depict the diversity of the American landscape. She made color woodcuts in Vermont, New Mexico, Kansas, Oregon and the Pacific Coast. She often exhibited with her husband, the well known etcher Arthur W. Hall. She was the only woman among the ten charter members of the Prairie Print Makers. Her work is represented in the Smithsonian Institution, the Achenbach Foundation and the Brooklyn Public Library.
Katharine Van Dyke Harker (1872-1966)
Born in San Francisco, Harker studied at the Art Students League, the Hopkins Institute in San Francisco and abroad. She also studied with Frank Morley Fletcher in 1924 in Santa Barbara. After returning to San Francisco, she studied at The University of California, Berkeley, with Chiuro Obata, a well known Japanese artist and teacher. Her woodcuts are primarily of landscapes in and around Marin County, California where she lived all her life. She is represented in the Oakland Museum, the Achenbach Foundation, and the Library of Congress.
Edna Boies Hopkins (1872-1937)
Edna Boies Hopkins was born in Hudson, Michigan. After attending the Art Academy of Cincinnati, 1885-1889, where she studied wood carving and illustration, she moved to New York City in 1899. There she studied with Arthur Wesley Dow at The Pratt Institute. She settled in Paris in 1905 where she had many exhibitions, returning to the United States as many artists did, in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I. She settled in New York City, and during the summer of 1915 she went to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to study with B.J.O. Nordfeldt. From him she learned the white line or one block technique of woodblock printing, which is now known as the Provincetown Print. Between 1914 and 1920 she worked in Provincetown and Maine during the summers. There she made mostly floral color woodcuts, for which she is perhaps best known. She then moved with her husband to the Cumberland Mountain Gap in Kentucky where she made prints depicting the local mountain people. Her color woodcuts are marked by their vibrant colors and meticulous carving. Her works are in the Library of Congress, the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Helen Hyde (1868-1919)
Born in Lima, New York, Helen Hyde grew up in San Francisco, where she studied with Emil Carlsen. She also studied at the Art Students League in New York and in Berlin, Paris and Holland. In 1899, she went to Japan to study color woodblock printing with Kano Tomonobu. She spent most of her time in Japan until 1915 when she moved to Pasadena. A trip to Mexico led to a series of prints in which she depicted Mexican subjects in the Japanese manner. Her favorite themes were children and mothers with their children, of which she made many different images. Hyde won numerous awards including a bronze medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Her work is in the New York Public Library and University of Oregon collections.
Jane Berry Judson (1868-1935)
Born in Castile, New York, Judson studied at The Pratt Institute with William Merritt Chase and at Reading University College in England where she learned wood-block printmaking. Her prints largely depict New England and upstate New York where she did most of her work. Like Gladys Wilkins Murphy, Judson experimented with color variations on the same blocks suggesting different times of the day. She is represented in the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.
Andrew Terry Keats - Fine Art 