Erle Loran (October 2, 1905 – May 13, 1999) was an American painter and art historian. He was a professor of art at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

from 1937 to 1981, and the author of a book about French painter

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

. His own paintings are held in museums in California and New York.

Life

Loran was born on October 2, 1905, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and graduated from the

Minneapolis College of Art and Design The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) is a private college specializing in the visual arts and located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MCAD currently enrolls approximately 800 students. MCAD is one of just a few major art schools to offer ...

in 1926. In 1926, he was awarded the Chaloner Foundation Scholarship to study in Europe for the next four years. He studied the artwork of French painter

, and he lived in Cézanne's studio in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

. Loran returned to Minnesota due to

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

, and he became a painter in his own right. He was painted landscapes and portraits, and he won the Grand Sweepstakes Prize at the 1934

Minnesota State Fair The Minnesota State Fair is the state fair of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Also known by its slogan, "The Great Minnesota Get-Together", it is the largest state fair in the United States by average daily attendance and the second-largest state fa ...

. Loran was also an arts educator. He was a professor of art at the

from 1937 to 1981. Loran was a leader of the "Berkeley School," a group of his colleagues who, following Cezanne, "placed greater emphasis on linear and textural qualities, flat planes of color, and shallow “picture box” treatment of space." He authored ''Cézanne's Composition'', a 1943 book in which he compared Cézanne's paintings to what he saw in

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

. At his retirement, Loran was awarded the University Citation for his contributions. His students included

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

, Ynez Johnston,

Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo (March 31, 1929 – November 11, 1989) was a visual artist who first became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose' ...

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...

Elmer Bischoff Elmer Nelson Bischoff (July 9, 1916 – March 2, 1991) was a visual artist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bischoff, along with Richard Diebenkorn and David Park, was part of the post-World War II generation of artists who started as abstract pai ...

, and

Robert Colescott Robert H. Colescott (August 26, 1925 – June 4, 2009) was an American Painting, painter. He is known for Satire, satirical genre and crowd subjects, often conveying his exuberant, comical, or bitter reflections on being African American. He stud ...

. Loran was also a collector of

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

and

African art African art describes the modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual culture from native or indigenous Africans and the African continent. The definition may also include the art of the African diasporas, su ...

from the

Pre-Columbian era In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the Migration to the New World, original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization of the Americas, European colonization, w ...

. In 1940, Loran was one of 20 artists who provided prints for the San Francisco Chronicle's efforts to provide original works of art by Western artists to the public. They sold for $2 each. His "San Francisco Bay," a Cezanne-like rendering that includes a freighter on the water and Alcatraz in the background, is included in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Philidelphia Museum of Art. Loran married Clyta Sisson on May 8, 1937. Clyta died of cancer in March 1982. Loran later married Ruth Schorer, whose first husband was art critic

Mark Schorer Mark Schorer (May 17, 1908 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, critic, and scholar born in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Biography Schorer earned an MA at Harvard and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936. Duri ...

and daughter was ballet dancer

Suki Schorer Suki Schorer is an American ballet dancer, ballet mistress, teacher, and writer. She danced with George Balanchine's New York City Ballet from 1959 to 1972. Suki Schorer teaches at the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New Yor ...

. Loran died on May 13, 1999, in Berkeley, California, at 93. His work is at the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, the

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cali ...

, and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York City. His art collection was acquired by the

de Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor ...

in 2008. His widow died in 2010.

Selected works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loran, Erle 1905 births 1999 deaths University of Minnesota alumni American expatriates in France University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Painters from Minnesota Painters from California American male painters 20th-century American painters American landscape painters American portrait painters American art historians American art collectors Historians from Minnesota Historians from California 20th-century American male artists