California Women Artists of the Modern Period

The versatility of many of these artists also is exemplified by Elizabeth Eaton Burton. While she is well known for her work in the Arts and Crafts movement in California, producing lamps of hammered copper and sea shells, her 1933 Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Nara color wood block print reveals the artist’s breadth of talent. Burton had traveled to the Orient, including Japan, studying printmaking in 1933-1934. Her Japanese inspired watercolors and prints toured internationally through 1936.

Leslie Buck’s ca. 1935 exquisite oil painting Jimson Weed is so very realistic that each element virtually bursts off the canvas. First taught by, and then marrying, artist Claude Buck, Leslie Buck took her husband’s precise manner of painting to a new level.

Homesteading, a ca. 1945 etching and aquatint by Trude Hanscom, dramatically conveys the reality and harshness of life for the people huddled near their vehicle next to a deserted dirt road. While working in many media, she was well known for combining drypoint and aquatint in her etchings. Hanscom spent most of her life in the vicinity of Los Angeles and was well-exhibited and active in many local art circles.

The San Francisco Art Association’s 1947 Purchase Prize was awarded to Edna Stoddart for her gouache I Remember That Day. Stoddart was a Bay Area artist who received her education at Mills College, the University of California and other art schools in Northern California. I Remember That Day is a colorful and fanciful depiction of a mountain landscape divided by a water inlet featuring several small, empty boats.

Helen Seegert, a lifelong resident of Santa Barbara, was a true master of the color woodcut. Her late 1930s African Stripes, Evening Watch and Al Anocheser woodcuts are exceptional examples of the medium and convey their fanciful subjects with beauty and color in superb compositions. Considered an excellent printmaker, Seegert also was known for her sculptures, not to mention her fiercely independent spirit.

Then there is Ginger Osgood, whose 1954 serigraph Gower Street is highly imaginative with exceptional and lively applications of color. Osgood’s serigraphs are considered some of the best examples of the medium in existence and have been widely exhibited.

Finally, it is worth noting that Henrietta Shore’s Mexican Mother and Water Carrier lithographs reflect her travels and experiences in Mexico with Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, Jean Charlot and others. Shore’s ca. 1925 Reclining Horse, a modernist approach to the depiction of a horse at rest, may be the only print of its kind in existence (see our prior 2018 exhibition about Shore).

Our Gallery’s website contains biographies of each artist that provide important background information for collectors and others. Most of these women artists were talented in a variety of media. In many cases we have selected prints or other works on paper as the primary medium, creating high value for our clients collecting these more modestly priced artworks.