Clayton Sumner "C. S." Price (1874 – 1950) was an American

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painter from

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Biography

Price was born on May 11, 1874 near

Bedford, Iowa Bedford is a city in Taylor County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,508 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Taylor County. Lake of Three Fires State Park is located a few miles northeast of Bedford. History The community is b ...

, and raised on farms and ranches there and in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

and

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. In 1905, a local rancher loaned Price money so he could attend the

St. Louis School of Fine Arts The St. Louis School of Fine Arts was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, and has continuously offered visual arts and sculpture education since then. Its purpose-buil ...

. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website (http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/10aa/10aa557.htm ). Price attended the school during the 1905–1906 academic year; it would be his only formal training. In 1909, Price moved to

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

to work as an illustrator for ''

The Pacific Monthly ''The Pacific Monthly'' was a magazine of politics, culture, literature, and opinion, published in Portland, Oregon, United States from 1898 to 1911, when it was purchased by Southern Pacific Railroad and merged with its magazine, '' Sunset''. ' ...

'' magazine. Price's illustrations of the magazine's

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

stories were reminiscent of the work of

Charles Marion Russell Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864 – October 24, 1926), also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, an ...

. Price left Portland in 1910, painting and working for room and board on the farms and ranches of his siblings in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

for the next eight years. Price visited

Monterey, California Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

in 1918. Price returned to Portland in 1929. During the 1930s, Price completed a series of large paintings as part of the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal program designed to employ artists that operated from 1933 to 1934. The program was headed by Edward Bruce, under the United States Treasury Department with funding from the Civil Works Admin ...

and the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

. These works currently are displayed in

Timberline Lodge Timberline Lodge is a mountain lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Clackamas County, Oregon, about east of Portland. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, it was built and furnished by local artisans during the ...

, the

Multnomah County Library Multnomah County Library is the public library system serving Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. A continuation of the Library Association of Portland, established in 1864, the system now has 19 branches offering books, magaz ...

, Pendleton High School, and the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

. He died on May 1, 1950. Price's long tenure in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Monterey Peninsula had the most profound impact on the development of his art. He visited San Francisco for the

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely se ...

in the spring of 1915 and decided to stay. The following January he displayed two "remarkable" studies of domestic animals at the Exhibition of California Artists at the Memorial Museum. This was soon followed by an exhibit of "pastoral scenes" at Helgesen's Gallery. From 1917 to 1920 he studied as an occasional student at the California School of Fine Arts (today's

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

) under

Pedro Joseph de Lemos Pedro Joseph de Lemos (25 May 1882 – 5 December 1954) was an American painter, printmaker, architect, illustrator, writer, lecturer, museum director and art educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to about 1930 he used the simpler name Ped ...

, Lee F. Randolph and Frank van Sloun, and was awarded a second prize at the school's annual exhibit in 1920. According to the U.S. Census that year he was unmarried and resided in San Francisco near his mentor and teacher, the renowned artist

Gottardo Piazzoni Gottardo Fidele Piazzoni (1872–1945) was a Swiss-born American landscape painter, muralist and sculptor of Italian heritage, a key member of the school of Northern California artists in the early 1900s. Life and career Born in Intragna, Switz ...

. By 1921 he was sharing a Monterey studio and residential address with artist William Gaskin and the Fauvist painter August Gay, a member of the

Society of Six The Society of Six was a group of artists who painted outdoors, socialized, and exhibited together in and around Oakland, California in the 1910s and 1920s. They included Selden Connor Gile, August Gay, Maurice Logan, Louis Siegriest, Bernard vo ...

, at the old French Hotel, known as the Stevenson House. Price was first described as a very quiet "Bible-reading man" who painted illustrative cowboy scenes. He earned money by working at the local cannery and making picture frames. He studied with the popular Post-Impressionist painter

Armin Hansen Armin Hansen (1886–1957), a native of San Francisco, was a prominent American painter of the en plein air school, best known for his marine canvases. His father Herman Wendelborg Hansen was also a famous artist of the American West. The young ...

. In April 1922 he was one of three Monterey artists invited by

to exhibit at Stanford University, where, according to one critic, his ten displayed works were reminiscent of

Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United State ...

. Shortly thereafter he exhibited at the: Del Monte Art Gallery (Monterey); Carmel Arts and Crafts Club; and California Gallery of American Art (San Francisco). By 1924 his art had changed radically and the press now described his works as having simplified compositions, blocks of either crude or harmonious colors, and juxtaposed planes that rendered distorted perspectives. His art was attracting wealthy buyers. At this time he was in a very public and romantic relationship with the artist Ina Perham. In the summer of 1925 his decidedly Expressionist canvases, along with his earlier paintings, were given a one-man show at San Francisco's Galerie des Beaux Arts. When critics evaluated his new works, they called him a "colorist" with no interest in drawing, but they also claimed that he "set a high mark for Modernists." His huge scaled model of the town of "old Monterey" was displayed on the Peninsula. In 1927 Price spent so much time in Berkeley and contributed to so many exhibits in the University town that he became a cult figure in the local art colony. That January his one-month show at the Berkeley League of Fine Arts attracted so much interest and so many students that it was extended into April; critics were enthralled by his purity, rhythm and progressive forms. Ten of Hansen's most reformist students formed the somewhat amorphous "Monterey Group," which included Price and Perham, and in May 1927 staged a highly publicized exhibit at the Galerie des Beaux Arts. Although much of the exhibit was panned, Price's canvas entitled ''Ploughing'' was called "quite an achievement." That summer a jury accepted his art for the exhibit at the California State Fair. Although he moved to Portland in 1929 he maintained an active schedule of exhibitions in northern California.

Style and collections

His style grew throughout his life, moving through

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

to expressionism. According to ''

The Oregon Encyclopedia The ''Oregon Encyclopedia of History and Culture'' is a collaborative encyclopedia focused on the history and culture of the U.S. state of Oregon. Description The encyclopedia is a project of Portland State University's History Department, thOreg ...

'': "C.S. Price may be Oregon's most important and influential painter... ewas nationally known in the 1940s." Price's work can be found in the Northwest Collection of the

Hallie Ford Museum of Art The Hallie Ford Museum of Art (HFMA) is the museum of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, United States. It is the third largest art museum in Oregon. Opened in 1998, the facility is across the street from the Oregon State Capital in downtow ...

in Salem, Oregon.

References

External links

Reminiscences by C. S. Price's niece Frances Price Cook
from the Portland Art Museum *
C. S. Price
in Portland Art Museum online collections

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, C. S. 1874 births 1950 deaths Artists from Portland, Oregon Artists of the American West Federal Art Project artists New Deal in Oregon People from Iowa People from Monterey, California Public Works of Art Project artists

Biography

Style and collections

Further reading

References

External links