Mathews, Arthur Frank (1860-1945).

Woman & Children Picking Poppies In Coastal Landscape by Arthur Frank Mathews (1860-1945) 12.25" x 9.25", Oil/Wood, Signed Lower Right Est.: $15,000 - $20,000 Sold by John Moran Auctioneers for $104,500 on 6/15/2004 ARTIST WORLD RECORD

Painter, muralist, craftsman.

Born in Markesan, WI on Oct. 1, 1860.

The Mathews family moved to Oakland when Arthur was six years old. He attended Oakland High School and received his first art instruction there from Helen Tanner Brodt.

As a teenager he worked in his father's architectural office. Having opted for an art career, he enrolled at the local School of Design where he studied with Virgil Williams while working as a designer-illustrator for Britton & Rey Lithographers.

He further studied for four years in Paris at Academie Julian under Boulanger and Lefebvre.

Returning to San Francisco in 1889, he became director of the School of Design. After reorganizing the school, for the next 17 years he exerted great influence on hundreds of his pupils, many of whom became internationally known.

After the earthquake and fire of 1906, he and his wife, Lucia, worked in their California Street workshop making handcrafted furniture, frames, and producing artworks that were highly individualistic, and popularized a style known today as the California Decorative Style.

His murals and paintings exemplify the Art Nouveau style while others are pre-Raphaelite in design.

By the time of the PPIE of 1915, art styles had begun to change and the creeping Modernism made the works of Mathews appear old-fashioned and for half a century his work was in eclipse.

Today he is a giant in American art.

Mathews died in San Francisco on Feb. 19, 1945.

Exh: Academie Julian, 1886 (gold medal); Paris Salon, 188789, 1898; Paris Expositions 1889, 1898; SFAA, 1890-1910; World's Columbian Expo (Chicago), 1893; Calif. State Fair, 1893-99; Calif. Midwinter Expo, 1894; Lewis & Clark Expo (Portland), 1905; PPIE, 1915; Bohemian Club, 1922; American Inst. of Architects, 1923 (gold medal); Oakland Museum, 1985 (solo).

In: Curran Theatre, Masonic Temple on Van Ness, Presbyterian Hospital Library, Mechanics' Inst. Library, Children's Hospital, all in SF; Oakland Public Library; Oakland Museum; Calif. State Capitol (rotunda mural, History of California); Stanford Univ. Library; CHS; MM; UC Library (mural). 11 CAR; Impressionism The Calif. View; Ber; H&I; Del Monte Revisited; Mathews by Harvey Jones; Calif. Design 1910; A Companion to Calif.; West As Art; WWA 1918; AAA 191933.