Arthur F. Mathews (1860-1945) was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American
Arts and Crafts MovementThe Arts and Crafts Movement was a British, Canadian, Australian, and American aesthetic movement occurring in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century...
. Trained as an architect and artist, he had a significant effect on the evolution of
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
n art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His students include
Granville RedmondGranville Redmond was an American landscape painter and exponent of California Impressionism.- Early years :...
,
Xavier MartinezXavier Timoteo Martínez was a California artist who flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, and, after becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States, died in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California...
,
Armin HansenArmin Hansen , native of San Francisco, is prominent American Painter of the En plein air school, best known for his marine canvases. His father Hermann Hansen was also a famous artist of the American West...
,
Percy GrayHenry Percy Gray was an American painter. Gray was born into a San Francisco family endowed with a broad literary and artistic background. He studied under Arthur Frank Mathews at the San Francisco School of Design and later under William Merritt Chase...
, Gottardo Piazzoni,
Maynard DixonMaynard Dixon was a noted 20th century American artist, whose oeuvre focused on the American West. He was married for a time to famed American photographer Dorothea Lange.-Biography:...
and Francis McComas.
Mathews was born in
Markesan, WisconsinMarkesan is a city in Green Lake County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,396 at the 2000 census. The center of population of Wisconsin is located in Markesan.-Geography:Markesan is located at ....
and lived there until he was six years old.
Arthur F. Mathews (1860-1945) was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American
Arts and Crafts MovementThe Arts and Crafts Movement was a British, Canadian, Australian, and American aesthetic movement occurring in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century...
. Trained as an architect and artist, he had a significant effect on the evolution of
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
n art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His students include
Granville RedmondGranville Redmond was an American landscape painter and exponent of California Impressionism.- Early years :...
,
Xavier MartinezXavier Timoteo Martínez was a California artist who flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, and, after becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States, died in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California...
,
Armin HansenArmin Hansen , native of San Francisco, is prominent American Painter of the En plein air school, best known for his marine canvases. His father Hermann Hansen was also a famous artist of the American West...
,
Percy GrayHenry Percy Gray was an American painter. Gray was born into a San Francisco family endowed with a broad literary and artistic background. He studied under Arthur Frank Mathews at the San Francisco School of Design and later under William Merritt Chase...
, Gottardo Piazzoni,
Maynard DixonMaynard Dixon was a noted 20th century American artist, whose oeuvre focused on the American West. He was married for a time to famed American photographer Dorothea Lange.-Biography:...
and Francis McComas.
Early years
Mathews was born in
Markesan, WisconsinMarkesan is a city in Green Lake County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,396 at the 2000 census. The center of population of Wisconsin is located in Markesan.-Geography:Markesan is located at ....
and lived there until he was six years old. His father was an architect and moved the family to San Francisco in the year 1866. Mathews learned architecture from his father; he then studied painting at the
California School of DesignFounded in 1871, the San Francisco Art Institute is one of the U.S.’s older and more prestigious schools of higher education in contemporary art. The school's main campus is located in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California, United States, with the graduate center in the Dogpatch...
, under the influence of Virgil Macey Williams. In San Francisco he also worked as a designer and illustrator at a
lithographyLithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
shop. He studied art in Paris at the
Académie JulianThe Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. At the time, the government sanctioned art school of France, École des Beaux-Arts, did not allow women to enroll...
from 1885 to 1889, where he was influenced by the academic classicism of his teachers
Gustave BoulangerGustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger was a French figure painter. He was born at Paris, studied with Delaroche and Jollivet, and in 1849 took the Prix de Rome. His paintings are prime examples of academic art of the time, particularly history painting...
and Jules Lefebvre, the
tonalismTonalism is an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Dark, neutral hues, such as gray, brown or blue, would usually dominate such compositions. During the late 1890s American art critics...
of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and the symbolism of
Pierre Puvis de ChavannesPierre Puvis de Chavannes, , was a French painter, who became the president and co-founder of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and whose work influenced many other artists.- Life :...
.
Life in San Francisco
Upon his return from Paris, Mathews taught life classes at the San Francisco Art Students League and the California School of Design. He became director of the latter in 1890 and continued to teach there until the great
1906 San Francisco earthquakeThe San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, CA and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 A.M. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.8; however, other values have...
. Following the earthquake, he and his artist wife Lucia opened the Furniture Shop in San Francisco. There he could unleash his combined skills as a craftsman, designer and painter. They also opened Philopolis Press and published the monthly Philopolis magazine, which promoted
Arts and CraftsArts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...
aesthetics in the rebuilding of the city. Among his many mural commissions was a twelve-panel series in the State Capitol Building, Sacramento.
Afternoon Among the Cypress in the permanent collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is typical of Mathews' landscape paintings of the Monterey Peninsula;
Spring Dance at the
Smithsonian American Art MuseumThe Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...
is one of his many paintings of female figures in semi-classical attire. His work is extensively represented in the
Oakland Museum of CaliforniaOakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California....
.
Mathews was a master of many media:
oil paintingOil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil — especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their...
, watercolor,
pastelPastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation.The noun "pastel" gives rise to:*...
,
gouacheGouache[p], the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water...
and
frescoFresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins...
. He and Lucia designed detailed interior decoration schemes in what became known as the California Decorative Style. They created a variety of furniture, boxes, carved and painted picture frames and many other decorative objects, and even large stained glass windows.
Significant permanent collections
Mathews' work is in the following major museums:
- Crocker Art Museum
The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California, USA has operated continuously longer than any other art museum west of the Mississippi River. Founded in 1885, it boasts an excellent collection of early California art including important works of Albert Bierstadt, Xavier Martinez, William Keith,...
, Sacramento, California
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, comprising the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco and one of the largest art museums in California.-External...
, M. H. de Young Memorial MuseumThe M.H. de Young Museum is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. It is named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H...
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum located in Washington, D.C. on the National Mall and designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It was conceived as the United States' museum of contemporary and modern art...
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
- New York Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California....
- San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art opened as the Museum of Fine Arts on February 28, 1926. The funders turned over ownership of the building to the City of San Diego. It is located in Balboa Park. The museum building was designed by architect William Templeton Johnson.The Museum's collections are...
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...