Isabelle Clark Percy West

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Isabelle Clark Percy West
Born
Isabelle Clark Percy

November 6, 1882
Alameda, California, U.S.
DiedAugust 25, 1976(1976-08-25) (aged 93)
Greenbrae, California, U.S.
Other namesIsabelle Percy,
Isabelle Percy West,
Isabelle Clark Percy–West
EducationMark Hopkins Institute of Art,
Teachers College, Columbia University
Occupation(s)Painter, lithographer, etcher, designer, educator
Known forFounding faculty of the California College of the Arts
SpouseGeorge Parsons West
Parent

Isabelle Clark Percy West (née Percy; 1882 – 1976) was an American painter, printmaker, designer, and educator. She was known for landscape paintings, botanical paintings, and early etchings of the Pacific Coast. She was part of the founding faculty of California College of the Arts in Oakland, California.

Early life and education[edit]

Isabelle Clark Percy was born on November 6, 1882, in Alameda, California.[1] Her mother was Emma Washburn (née Clark) was from Portland, Maine, from a family that descended from the Mayflower colonists.[1][2] Her father was George W. Percy a noted San Francisco architect from Bath, Maine.[3][4] She grew up in Oakland, California; with a break from 1894 until 1896 to attended the Fort Wayne School for Girls in Portland, Maine.[5]

Percy studied at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art (later known as San Francisco Art Institute), in San Francisco, under Arthur Frank Mathews.[5] She continued her studies under Henry Bayley Snell in New York City.[6][5] She went on to attend Columbia University, where she studied under Arthur Wesley Dow.[7] Percy graduated from the Art Department of Teachers College, Columbia University in 1907.[8][9] After graduation, she travelled and studied in Europe for a few years.[5] In England, she studied under Welsh artist, Frank Brangwyn.[6]

She married George Parsons West, a newspaperman, in 1916.[10][6]

Career[edit]

Artwork[edit]

In the 1910s, 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", Percy was recognized for her etchings.[11]

In 1911, she received an honorable mention at the Paris Salon.[6] In 1915, Percy won a bronze medal for her lithographic print at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.[6][10]

Teaching[edit]

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 (1925).[12]

Legacy[edit]

Percy West died on August 25, 1976 in Greenbrae, California.[1]

In 1968, the "Isabelle Percy West Gallery" was completed in the topmost level of Founders Hall which was built on the Treadwell Mansion-Oakland campus of California College of Arts and Crafts, to honor founding faculty of the college.[13]

Percy West's work is held in collections at Mills College Art Museum in Oakland, California.[14]

Exhibitions[edit]

Percy West exhibited nationally in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Hawaii and New York as well as internationally in Paris and Germany.[10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Kovinick, Phil; Yoshiki-Kovinick, Marian (1998). An Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West (1st ed.). University of Texas Press. p. 248. ISBN 0292790635.
  2. ^ Register of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of California: A Record of Descent from Passengers on the Good Ship, "Mayflower," A.D. 1620. California Society of Mayflower Descendants. 1917. p. 20.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ Moore, Sylvia, ed. (1989). Yesterday and Tomorrow: California Women Artists (1st ed.). Midmarch Arts. p. 69. ISBN 0960247696.
  4. ^ "George Washington Percy (Architect)". Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD). Retrieved 2023-09-20.
  5. ^ a b c d "Isabelle West - Biography". AskArt.com. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
  6. ^ a b c d e American Art Directory. Vol. 20. R.R. Bowker. 1923. p. 645.
  7. ^ Koplos, Janet; Metcalf, Bruce (2010). Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. University of North Carolina Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780807834138.
  8. ^ "Faculty" (PDF). School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts Catalog. 1907–1908: 2. 1907. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  9. ^ Royer, Britt. "Six Paintings from Avid Art Collector and Beloved Professor Naomi Schwartz will be on view in Upcoming 2020 SMCMoA Exhibition". Saint Mary's College of California. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d Moore, Sylvia Ed. (1989). Yesterday and Tomorrow: California Women Artists. New York: Midmarch Arts Press. p. 69. ISBN 0960247696.
  11. ^ MacDonald, Augustin S. (1915). Little Literary Lights: Personal Preferences in Art: Literature: Flowers: Music. San Francisco: John J. Newbegin. p. 25. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  12. ^ "Arts, Crafts School Opens at New Site". Western Journal of Education. 31: 17. August 1925. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  13. ^ "California College of the Arts 1907–2007". Glance. 15 No.1 (Centennial Issue): 29, 66. 2007. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  14. ^ "MCAM Artist: Isabelle Clark Percy West". Mills College Art Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  15. ^ "Hawaiian Paintings At Academy of Arts". The Nippu Jiji: Leading Japanese Newspaper in the Territory. March 31, 1928: 8. March 31, 1928. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  16. ^ "Feminizing Permanence". Saint Mary's College of California. Retrieved 10 March 2021.

External links[edit]

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