Isabelle Clark Percy West (1882–1976) was an American artist, designer and educator based in

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 ...

known for

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...

s, early Pacific Coast etching and her role in the founding faculty of

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

Early life and education

Isabelle Clark Percy was born on November 6, 1882, in Alameda, California. Her father was George W. Percy a San Francisco architect. Percy West studied at the

Mark Hopkins Institute of Art San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, 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 Mis ...

, formerly the California School of Design and later SFAI, 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 ...

. She went on to attend

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where she studied under

Arthur Wesley Dow Arthur Wesley Dow (1857 – December 13, 1922) was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and an arts educator. Early life Arthur Wesley Dow was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1857. Dow received his first art training in 1880 from An ...

She graduated from the Art Department of

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

in 1907. Isabelle Clark Percy married George West, a newspaperman, in 1916.

Work

In the teens, when "On the Pacific Coast, the profession being in its infancy...there are many encouraging creditable productions that command favorable consideration, among them...Helen Hyde and Isabelle Percy with their pictorial colored prints" Isabelle Percy was recognized for her etchings

Awards

In 1915 Percy won a bronze medal for her lithographic print at the

Panama Pacific International Exposition Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cost ...

in San Francisco.

Collections

Percy West's work is held in many permanent collections including: *

Mills College Art Museum Mills College Art Museum is a museum and art gallery in Oakland, California. The originally all-girls' school Mills College was founded by Susan and Cyrus Mills, who were both interested in art and history. Susan's sister Jane Tolman was an ar ...

, Oakland, CA

Selected exhibitions

Percy West's work was featured in the 2020 Saint Mary's College Museum of Art exhibit ''Feminizing Permanence'' In 1928 Percy West's paintings of landscapes and Hawaiian flowers were featured in an exhibit of Hawaiian Paintings at The Academy of Arts, Honolulu, now 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 ...

In 1915 her lithography work was included in the

in San Francisco. Percy West exhibited nationally in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Hawaii and New York as well as internationally in Paris and Germany.

Teaching

In 1925, when the California School of Arts and Crafts completed its move from Berkeley to a new Oakland campus at the corner of Broadway and College Avenue, West made the move as well and was named as one of "the school's faculty of highly trained specialists" in the Western Journal of Education.

Legacy

In 1968 The Isabelle Percy West Gallery was completed in the topmost level of Founders Hall which was built on the Oakland campus of

California College of Arts and Crafts California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the mo ...

to honor founding faculty of the college.

References

External links

Isabelle Percy West with CCA Founder, Frederick Meyer
{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Isabelle Clark Percy 1882 births 1976 deaths American women painters American women printmakers American etchers Painters from California Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area San Francisco Art Institute alumni Teachers College, Columbia University alumni California College of the Arts faculty 20th-century American painters People from Alameda, California 20th-century American women artists American women academics