The Lei Maker, oil on canvas painting by Theodore Wores, 1901

Theodore Wores (August 1, 1859 – September 11, 1939) was an American painter born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, son of Joseph Wores and Gertrude Liebke. His father worked as a hat manufacturer in San Francisco.

Life

Wores began his art training at age twelve in the studio of Joseph Harrington, who taught him color, composition, drawing and perspective. When the San Francisco School of Design opened in 1874, Wores was one of the first pupils to enroll. After one year at that school under the landscape painter

Virgil Macey Williams Virgil Macey Williams (October 29, 1830 - December 18, 1886) was an American painter, and the director of the San Francisco School of Design (now known as San Francisco Art Institute). In 1872, he co-founded the San Francisco Art Association wi ...

, he continued his art education at the Royal Academy in Munich where he spent six years. He also painted with

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

and

Frank Duveneck Frank Duveneck (né Decker; October 9, 1848 – January 3, 1919) was an American figure and portrait painter. Early life Duveneck was born in Covington, Kentucky, the son of German immigrant Bernhard Decker. Decker died in a cholera epidemic whe ...

. Wores returned to San Francisco in 1881. He went to Japan for two extended visits and had successful exhibitions of his Japanese paintings in New York City and London, where he became friends with

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

and

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. He visited

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

in 1901-1902 and established a home in San Francisco about 1906. He visited Hawaii for a second time in 1910–1911. He was married in 1910 in San Francisco to Carolyn Bauer. For the remainder of his career, Wores painted the coast on the western edge of San Francisco. He died from a heart attack in San Francisco Sept. 11, 1939.

Collections

His most famous work is ''The Lei Maker'', which is on permanent display at 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 co ...

. The

Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...

(Andover, Massachusetts), the

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

(Sacramento, California), the

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 ...

(Washington, DC), and the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

(Washington, DC), are among the public collections that also hold works by Wores.

Works

* 1900 - ''Custom House, Monterey'', oil on pressboard, Shasta State Historic Park,

Shasta County, California Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 182,155 as of the 2020 census, up from 177,223 from the 2010 census. The county seat is Redding. Shasta ...

* 1901 - ''Hawaiian House'', oil on canvas * 1901 - ''The Lei Maker'', oil on canvas,

, Honolulu, Hawaii 'Hawaiian House', oil on canvas painting by Theodore Wores.jpg, ''Hawaiian House'' (1901) oil on canvas painting by Theodore Wores Theodore Wores - House and Garden, Saratoga.jpg, ''House and Garden, Saratoga''

References

* Forbes, David W., ''Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941'', Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, pp. 204–224. * Gerdts, William H., ''The World of Theodore Wores'', Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., 1999, * Hover, Laurie, "Lizzie",

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, December 1970, pp. 46–47 * Pitzer, Pat, ''An Artist-Adventurer in Turn-of-the-century Hawaii'',

, May 1987, pp. 69–101

External links

Artwork by Theodore Wores

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wores, Theodore 19th-century American painters 19th-century American male artists American male painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists Painters from California 1859 births 1939 deaths Artists from San Francisco