Robert Lee Eskridge (November 22, 1891 – April 14, 1975) was an American genre painter, muralist and illustrator.

Biography

He was born in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, to Ella May Moore and Joshua Hargus Eskridge. Eskridge moved with his family to

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

as a child. He studied at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, the Los Angeles College of Fine Arts, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, the

Chicago Academy of Fine Arts The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

and with George Senseney and

André Lhote André Lhote (5 July 1885 – 24 January 1962) was a French Cubist painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also active and influential as a teacher and writer on art. Early life and education Lhote was born ...

in Paris. After traveling extensively in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and the

South Seas Today the term South Seas, or South Sea, is used in several contexts. Most commonly it refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator. In 1513, when Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term ''Mar del Sur'', ...

, he lived in Chicago, New York, and Coronado Beach, California (1917–32). He moved to Honolulu in 1932 and taught at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

he was a

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

muralist. His murals are in the Ala Moana Park Sports Pavilion in Honolulu and at

Palmer House The Palmer House – A Hilton Hotel is a historic hotel in Chicago's Loop area. It is a member of the Historic Hotels of America program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Palmer House was the city's first hotel with elevators ...

in Chicago. The

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

and

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

are among the public collections holding works of Eskridge.Robert Lee Eskridge on AskArt.com
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Books

As author and illustrator

* '' Manga Reva. The Forgotten Islands'' (1931). Bobbs Merrill. Adult non-fiction. * ''South Sea Playmates'' (1933). Bobbs Merrill. Children's non-fiction. * ''Umi: The Hawaiian Boy Who Became a King'' (1936). John C. Winston Company.

As illustrator

* ''No-Wa-Na: An Indian Tale Told in Verse'' by John Fremont Kyger. (1919). Fremont Publishing, Chicago. * ''When Tytie Came'' by . (1920). The Reilly & Lee Co., Chicago. * ''The Boy King of the Cannibal Islands'' by C.A.F. Ducorron. (1932). Bobbs Merrill. * ''Pikoi and Other Legends of the Island of Hawaii'' as retold by Caroline Curtis; Mary Kawena Pukui, editor. (1949). Kamehameha Schools Press.

References

* Congdon-Martin, Douglas, ''Aloha Spirit, Hawaiian Art and Popular Design'', Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA, 1998, pp. 174–175 * Forbes, David W., "Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941", Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 213–257. * Papanikolas, Theresa and DeSoto Brown, ''Art Deco Hawai'i'', Honolulu, Honolulu Museum of Art, 2014, , pp. 67–69 * Sandulli, Justin M., ''Troubled Paradise: Madge Tennent at a Hawaiian Crossroads'', Durham, NC: Duke University, 2016 * Severson, Don R. ''Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections'', University of Hawaii Press, 2002, pp. 124–5. *Hustace, James J. ''Painters and Etchers of Hawaii-A Biographical Collection-1780-2018, Library of Congress (C)''

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eskridge, Robert Lee American muralists 20th-century American painters American male painters American genre painters Artists from Hawaii Works Progress Administration workers 1891 births 1975 deaths Painters from California People from Philipsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania 20th-century American male artists