Jessie Glen Francis Short Jackson (1864 – 1948)

Titled: My back yard
Measures 17.5×22.25 inches
Oil on board
signed lower left
Farhat Art Museum Collection.

Born in Silver City, Alpine County, CA on Sept. 7, 1864. Jessie’s marriage to John Short of Fresno in 1885 ended with his death in 1919; she married Egbert Jackson in San Francisco in 1920. Upon moving across the bay to Berkeley, Mrs. Jackson established a home at 1382 Euclid Avenue and erected a summer studio in Carmel on the corner of Dolores and 7th where El Paseo Court now stands. She studied there for many years with Sydney Yard. Although she worked in oil on rare occasions, she was primarily a watercolorist of coastal scenes of the Monterey Peninsula. She died of heart failure at Napa (CA) State Hospital on Dec. 11, 1948. Exh: Fresno Co. Fair, 1889, 1892 (premiums); Sketch Club (SF), 1911-12; Del Monte Art Gallery, 1912; Carmel AA; Rabjohn & Morcom Gallery (SF), 1912, 1916 (solos); SFAA, 1916; Berkeley League of FA, 1924; American Pen Women, De Young Museum, 1928; Calif. Statewide (Santa Cruz), 1928; Calif. State Fair, 1930; GGIE, 1939. Source: Edan Hughes, “Artists in California, 1786-1940” City Directory; American Art Annual 1919; Census; Artists of the American West (Doris Dawdy); California State Library (Sacramento); Women Artists of the American West; Monterey Peninsula Herald, 10-18-1966, A3; Carmel at Work & Play; Death record.

William John Bertram Newcombe CSGA, CWCS (1907 – 1969)

Titled: Dead End
Dated: 1954
Watercolor on board
Measures: 30×40 inches
Exhibited: The Ontario Society of Artists 82 Annual.
Farhat Art Museum Collection.

A painter and commercial artist, William John Bertram Newcombe was born in Victoria, British Columbia and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. He lived in Toronto, Ontario (1936 – 1955) and London, England (1955 – 1969), where he died. (1)

His mediums included oil, watercolor, gouache*, pen & ink, collage* and mixed mediums. His subjects included, faces, figures, landscapes, street scenes, country roads, coastal views, and as an abstractionist – shape, color and texture. His styles included Abstract Expressionism*, Color Field Painting*, Constructivism*, Fauvism* and Cubism*; AskART has some good illustrations of his work.

He’s considered self taught, however most sources note that he did take some private lessons in Vancouver with Group of Seven* icon Frederick Varley.

Newcombe was a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art* (c. 1950) and its president and a member of the Cali­fornia Water Color Society* (1947). (2)

In addition to the above organizations, he exhibited with the Art Association of Montreal [now Montreal Museum of Fine Arts] (1933), the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts* (1938, 1947 and 1953), the Ontario Society of Artists* (1941), and the American Water Color Society* (1947 and 1948).

His works were also included in a Canadian Women’s Art Association exhibition, Vancouver Art Gallery (1946); “Canadians Abroad”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1958); “Irish Exhibition of Living Art”, Brown Thomas Gallery, Dublin (1958); “Canadian Abstract Art: A Centennial Exhibition”, Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, London, England (1967); and “The 1950s”, Laurentian University Museum and Arts Centre, Sudbury, Ontario and touring (1988).

He’s had solo exhibitions at Stadtisches Museum Wuppertal, Germany (1957); Manchester City Art Gallery, England (1961); Manor House Museum, Ilkley, England (1962); the Arts Council, Karachi, Pakistan (1964); and the County Town Gallery, Lewes, England (1964).

Newcombe has also been the subject of one man shows at numerous prominent commercial galleries such as Ferargil Galleries, New York City (1946); Obelisk Gallery, London (1956 and 1988); Galerie El Corsario, Ibiza, Spain (1956); Galerie Iris Clert, Paris (1957); New Vision Gallery, London (1958, 1959, 1962, 1964 and 1965);  Portal Gallery, London (1961); Grosvenor Gallery, London (1961); Jerrold Morris Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario (1962); Reid Gallery, London (1962); Stone Gallery, Newcastle-on-Tyne, England (1962); Heal’s Art Gallery, London (1964); and  Nicholas Treadwell Gallery, London (1965).

According to the Canadian Heritage Information Network* and individual museum websites, Newcombe’s works are in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (B.C.), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, Massachusetts), Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester, England), and the Government Art Collection (Great Britain). (3)

Footnotes:
1.1 He worked as a newspaper staff artist and commercial artist in Vancouver. Source: The Collector’s Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction and A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (see AskART book references).

1.2 Newcombe took an extended visit to Mexico in 1946 and 1947. Source: Ibid.

2. Newcombe was also a flying officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force (1941 – 1945) and a combat veteran of World War II. He completed 16 missions over Europe before being shot down and injured in the resulting parachute jump. Source: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (see AskART book references).

3.1 A Dictionary of Canadian Artists notes that his works are also in the permanent collections of the Philbrook Art Centre (Tulsa), Joslyn Memorial Art Museum (Omaha, Nebraska), William Rockhill Nelson Gallery [now Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art](Kansas City, Missouri), Wadsworth Atheneum, (Hartford, Connecticut), Odessa Art Museum (Odessa, U.S.S.R.[now Ukraine]), National Gallery Of Israel (Tel Aviv), The Isaac Delgado Museum and Art Gallery (New Orleans, Louisiana), and the National Gallery of New South Wales (Syd­ney, Australia), however we were unable to confirm this information on the museums’ websites. – MDS

3.2 The work in the Government Art Collection is a 17” X 27” watercolor on paper titled Light and Form, it’s located in the offices of the British High Commission, Wellington, New Zealand. Source: Government Art Collection.

Sources:
Biographical Index of Artists in Canada (2003), by Evelyn de Rostaing McMann (see AskART book references)
The Collector’s Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar (see AskART book references)
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Spring Exhibitions 1880 – 1970 (1988), by Evelyn de R. McMann (see AskART book references)
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts: Exhibitions and Members, 1880 – 1979 (1981), by Evelyn de R. McMann (see AskART book references)
A Dictionary of Canadian Artists: Volume 5, Nadeau – Perrigard (1977), by Colin S. MacDonald (see AskART book references)
The History of Painting in Canada – Toward a Peoples Art (1974), by Barry Lord (see AskART book references)
Canadian Heritage Information Network*
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England
Government Art Collection, Great Britain
Art Gallery of Ontario (catalogue summaries online)
James Adam & Sons Ltd. (Fine Art Auctioneers) Dublin, Ireland
Ottawa Citizen April 1, 1953, page 3 “Kites, Doves…”

Spero Anargyros (1915 – 2004)

Title:Female Nude
68″ x 18.50″ x 22″
(172.72cm x 46.99cm x 55.88cm)
Plaster, signed in the base.
Farhat Art Museum

Spero Anargyros studied at the Art Student’s League under William
Zorach. Anargyros won the St. Gaudens Medal in 1943, medals at

the National Competition Sculpture and the Tenth Annual National Exhibition of the Academy Artist Association. The artist has life-long memberships with the Art Students League, the National Sculpture Society and the Academy Artists Association. Source: Falk, “Who Was Who in American Art.

For over 65 years, the late Spero Anargyros worked as a professional sculptor. His skills in portraiture ranged from heads in full round, bas-relief, medallions, busts and full figures and monumental. His portraits covered the whole range of humanity: emperor, ruler,

statesmen, industrial executives, writers, attorneys, doctors, beautiful people and children. He worked worldwide: United States, Greece, Italy, England, Guam, Japan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and even on the Atlantic Ocean. He maintained his studio in San Francisco. He preferred working from life the best but from photographs he created the over life sized bronze portrait head of the late George R. Moscone, the San Francisco mayor who was assassinated in 1978 while in office. This portrait head was unveiled in 1994 at the City Hall Rotunda in San Francisco and a second bronze cast is at the San Francisco Convention Center.

His studies were in New York, where he received two scholarships at the Art Students League and two more at the Master Institute of United Arts. He was assistant to Mahonri Young, grandson of Brigham Young, from 1944 to 1947 to create the monument “This is the Place” in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a fellow of the National Sculpture Society and a member of the American Portrait Society. He exhibited in many major exhibitions and museums and received many awards for his sculpture.

Additional information can be found in the supplement to Who’s Who in the West, June-August 1956 and the 7th to 16th Volumes; Who’s Who in American Art, 1977; Who’s Who in American Art, 1966-1978; Dictionary of International Biography 4th-6th Editions; Who’s Who in California 6-8th Editions; Articles & Photos, American Artist Magazine, Feb. 1967 Issue.

Vicente Rojo (1932 – )

Vicente Rojo (1932 – ) Mexico
Titled:” El Duelo” ( The Duel )
Measure 32 x 43.5 inches
Oil on canvas
exhibited Galerias Caplota S.A. Mexico
Farhat Art Museum Collection.

Vicente Rojo was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1932. He studied Ceramics and Sculpture in Spain. In 1949 he moved to Mexico, and continued his art studies at La Esmeralda, Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado in Mexico. He was member of the group of Mexican plastic artists who departed from the Mexican School of Painting known as the Ruptura, whose principal leaders were Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Vicente Rojo has been recognized as the most remarkable designer for the most important cultural magazines of Mexico, such as the Bellas Artes Magazine from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and Artes de México. In 1991 he was awarded the Premio BNacional de Arte and the Mexico Prize, for design. In 1993 he was entitled as Emeritus Creator by the Sistema Nacional de Creadores and was awarded the Golden Medal to the Mérito de Bellas Artes in Spain. In 1998, he was designated Member of El Colegio Nacional, and entitled as Doctor Honoris Causa by the UNAM. The paintings of Vicente Rojo are essentially abstract, but with the sensibility and the discipline of his graphic technique. Mexico bajo la lluvia is perhaps the most beautiful serie of his works. He also has painted several series of works like, Signals, Negaciones, Recuerdos, and Escenarios.

Robert Downs (1927 – 1976)

Titled: Something fantomas Goric
Measures: 27×31
Oil on Canvas
Farhat Art Museum Collection.

Robert Downs studied at the California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland;California School of Fine Arts, MFA; and Mills College, Oakland. Solo Exhibitions:Bolles Gallery, San Francisco 1959. Selected Exhibitions:The Oakland Museum, California Painter’s Exhibition, 1957, 1959;The Oakland Museum, Contemporary Bay Area Figurative Painting, 1957;The Art Bank of the San Francisco Art Association,1959, 60;78th Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1959; Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1960; 82nd Annual Painting Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Institute at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1963; Awards:San Francisco Art Association Annual 1959;Jack London Square Art Festival, Oakland; Richmond Art Center. Literature: Thomas Albright, Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980; Caroline Jones, Bay Area Figurative Art, 1950 – 1956:San Francisco Art Association (Institute) Catalog of the Art Bank.