Gertrude Partington Albright (September 11, 1874 – September 7, 1959) was a British-born American artist known for portrait etchings and her

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

-influenced California landscapes. She taught at the

California School of Fine Arts 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 ...

for nearly thirty years.

Family and education

She was born Gertrude Partington in

Heysham Heysham ( ) is a coastal town in Lancashire, England, overlooking Morecambe Bay. It is a Heysham Port, ferry port, with services to the Isle of Man and Ireland, and the site of two Heysham nuclear power station, nuclear power stations. Demogra ...

, a coastal village in England. Her father was John Herbert Evelyn Partington (1843–99), a painter, and her mother was Sarah (Mottershead) Partington. Four of her six siblings also had careers in the arts, notably Blanche, who became a writer; Phyllis, who became an opera singer under the stage name Frances Peralta; John, who became a theater manager; and Richard, who became an artist. Her family emigrated to the United States in 1889, settling in Oakland, California. In 1917, she married Herman Oliver Albright (born Herman Oliver Albrecht in Germany; 1876-1944), also a landscape painter. She died in San Francisco. Her papers are held by the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

at the University of California, Berkeley.

Art education and career

She got her early training in art from her father and was only 16 when she sold her first artwork. For a time she worked as an illustrator for the ''San Francisco Examiner'', contributing courtroom sketches and society portraits. She eventually earned enough money as an illustrator to afford a trip to Europe for further art training, enrolling at the

Académie Delécluse The Académie Delécluse was an atelier-style art school in Paris, France, founded in the late 19th century by the painter Auguste Joseph Delécluse. It was exceptionally supportive of women artists, with more space being given to women students ...

in the late 1890s. By 1903, she was exhibiting at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

. Albright stayed abroad for several years, making occasional return trips to California. When she returned to the Bay Area for good in 1912, she opened a painting and printmaking studio on Post Street. An established artist by then, she joined the faculty at the

in 1917, teaching painting and etching. She was promoted to associate professor in 1932 and remained at the school until she retired in 1946. Her students there included

Victor Arnautoff Victor Mikhail Arnautoff (born Uspenovka, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire, November 11, 1896 – died Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, March 22, 1979) was a Russian-American painter and professor of art. He worked in San Francisco and ...

. She also sat on the school's board of directors. Albright was often commissioned to make portraits, and her portrait etchings drew praise for their skillful likenesses and clear, minimal lines. She is also known for her

-inflected

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

landscapes done in oil on wood. Critics noted the strong influence of Paul Cézanne on her paintings but considered that her work succeeded on its own merits. She exhibited widely, winning a bronze medal for one of her portraits at the 1915

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 ...

. Her work is in the collections of museums including 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 ...

, the

Oakland Museum 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

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 ...

. She was active in Bay Area art organizations, becoming a charter member of the California Society of Etchers and the director of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists and serving on many prize juries.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albright, Gertrude Partington 1874 births 1959 deaths 20th-century American painters American women painters 20th-century American printmakers American women printmakers Modern painters 20th-century American women artists San Francisco Art Institute faculty People from Heysham Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Académie Delécluse alumni Artists from San Francisco American women academics