Artist Biography

Arthur MATHEWS
1860 - 1945

Arthur Frank Mathews was a Renaissance man. A painter, muralist, and master craftsman, he was born on October 1, 1860 in Markesan, Wisconsin. The Mathews family moved to Oakland, California 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 Académie 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 hand-crafted furniture, frames, and producing art works 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 Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915, art styles had begun to change. 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 February 19, 1945. Exhibited: Académie Julian, 1886 (gold medal); Paris Salon, 1887-89, 1898; Paris Expositions 1889, 1898; San Francisco Art Ass'n, 1890-1910; World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago), 1893; California State Fair, 1893-99; California Midwinter Exposition, 1894; Lewis & Clark Expo (Portland), 1905; Panama Pacific International Exposition, 1915; Bohemian Club, 1922; American Institute of Architects, 1923 (gold medal); Oakland Museum, 1985 (solo). Works held: Curran Theatre, Masonic Temple on Van Ness, Presbyterian Hospital Library, Mechanics' Institute Library, Children's Hospital, all in San Francisco; Oakland Public Library; Oakland Museum; California State Capitol (rotunda mural, History of California); Stanford University Library; California Historical Society; Metropolitan Museum; University of California Library (mural).

Return to artwork page.