Crawford, Esther Mabel (1872-1958).

Coastal by Esther Mabel Crawford (1872-1958) 15" 22", Oil/Canvas, Signed Est.: $2,000 - $3,000 Sold by John Moran Auctioneers for $3,025 on 10/29/2002

Esther Mabel Crawford was born on April 23, 1872 in Atlanta, Georgia and spent her childhood there.  She attended the Cincinnati Art Academy from 1894-1898 under Lewis H. Meakin, Thomas Noble, and Joseph H. Sharp.

In 1900 she studied in Paris with James Whistler.   Crawford also spent time at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1901, and the South Kensington School of Design in London. She studied with Bror Nordfeldt in Chicago, and with Alphonse Mucha, Arthur W. Dow and Otto Walter Beck.  Esther Crawford also studied in Japan during a 1922 trip.

Crawford lived briefly in New York, Chicago and Jacksonville, Illinois, and traveled to Japan and China before settling in southern California.  In 1911 she took a position in the art department of the State Normal School, now UCLA.

Esther Crawford was primarily an oil painter and block printer of scenes in California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Her exhibitions included the Society of Western Artists, Detroit; California-Panama Exposition, San Diego; California Art Club, Los Angeles; Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Esther Crawford died on November 21, 1958 in San Gabriel, California.

Source:
Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West