Theodore Wores (California/Hawaii, 1859-1939), oil on canvas South Pacific landscape, depicting a scene in Samoa with huts beneath palm trees in a grassy, tropical setting. Signed "Theodore Wores." lower right. Housed in a giltwood frame. Sight: 18 1/2" H x 27 1/2" W. Framed: 22 1/2" H x 31 1/2" W. Biography: Theodore Wores is known as the first native born major San Franciscan artist. He became one of the first American artists to live and work in Japan, and one of the first to paint landscapes of Hawaii and Samoa. He has been called "the ethnographer with a pallet" for his interest and sensitivity in depicting other cultures and races (source: biographer and anthropologist Valerie Smith). Wores was exposed to Asian culture as a child. His parents had fled political turmoil in 1848 and opened a shop a block from Chinatown. Wores began his art training at age 12 and became one of the first students to enroll in the School of Design under the direction of Virgil Williams in 1874. After a year he left to study art in Munich when he was 17. He spent the next six years in Munich where he joined a group of other young American artists who studied under artist Frank Duveneck. On a trip to Italy, Wores met and studied with James Whistler and began a lifelong friendship. Whistler's interest in Asian art is thought to have inspired Wores later travels to the Orient. Upon returning to San Francisco in 1881, Wores began painting Chinatown subjects. He spent three years in Japan in the mid-1880s followed by years of traveling. He exhibited in London, NYC, Boston, and made a second trip to Japan before returning to San Francisco in 1898. He traveled extensively during 1901-03 to Hawaii, Samoa, and Spain and created figure studies of the native inhabitants. Sadly, many of Wores' paintings and his studio were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco fire. The following year he was appointed dean of the San Francisco Art Institute, a position he held for six years. His work was featured in many exhibitions, including the Royal Academy in London and at The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893, and is included in the collections of museums and institutions, such as the Honolulu Academy of Arts, The Brooklyn Museum, and The White House. He was a member of several artistic clubs, including The Bohemian Club, The Century Club, The Salmagundi Club, The Art Society of Japan, The New English Art Club (London), and The San Francisco Art Association. (Sources: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"; Valerie Smith, "Visual Pioneers of the 19th century: the World of Theodore Wores," and The Society of California Pioneers (californiapioneers.org).

PROVENANCE: The Estate of Carl Klein, Brentwood, Tennessee.

CONDITION: Overall good condition with grime and yellowing to varnish throughout. Some light buckling to canvas, top left. 6 1/2" area of exposed canvas, lower right. 1" x 1 1/2" oval patch visible center left en verso with corresponding inpainting (lower right of hut).