This is an exceptional and Antique Old 1905 Early California Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting on Artist Board, by the talented early 20thth century California plein air Impressionist painter, Lee Fritz Randolph (1880 - 1956.) In this image, a quiet European cityscape scene is visible in the foreground, with a tall old cathedral and a small street and several trees below. In the distance, a periwinkle hued mountain vista can be seen. Signed and dated: "L.F. Randolph '05," in the lower left corner. Additionally, this piece is titled, annotated and signed on the verso, "...old church of Fluelen...a Swiss mountain village. May - 1905. Lee F. Randolph." This artwork was painted while the artist was studying in Rome, and shortly before his wife died in December of 1905. The artist would return to the United States and live in California permanently by 1913. This piece is approximately 10 x 12 1/2 inches (including frame.) Actual visible artwork is approximately 6 x 8 1/4 inches. Very good condition for well over a century of age and storage, with moderate scuffing, gilding loss, and edge wear to the original antique period gilded wood frame (please see photos.) Acquired from an old estate collection in Los Angeles County, California. Original artworks by Lee F. Randolph are held in the permanent collections of the Springville Museum of Art, Utah, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and numerous private collections worldwide. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks!
About the Artist:
Born: 1880 - Ravenna, OhioDied: 1956 - Salinas, California
Known for: Landscape, portrait, printmaker
Lee Fritz Randolph (1880 - 1956) was active/lived in California, Ohio. Lee Randolph is known for Landscape, portrait, printmaker.
Lee Randolph is noted for his Impressionist landscapes and portraits. He was born in 1880 in Ravenna, Ohio. He started his art training at Stevenson Art School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later studied under Frank Duvenek and Thomas Noble at the Cincinnati Art Academy. In New York City Randolph attended the Art Students League where Kenny Cox and George Bridgeman were his instructors. He traveled to Europe for ten years of art study, spending time in Paris, France, and Rome, Italy. In Paris he studied at Academie Julian under the instruction of Jean Paul Laurens and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Bonnat and Marson. Randolph relocated to California in 1913 where he stayed briefly in the Monterey area before settling in San Francisco. He became a member of the Bohemian Club and the California Society of Etchers. In the winter 1915 he taught at University of California, Berkeley, and in 1917 he began a twenty-five year position as director of the California School of Fine Arts. In 1915 he received a bronze medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. He exhibited at the Del Monte Art Gallery (1916), the Oakland Art Gallery (1916), the Paris Salon (1935), and the San Francisco Art Association (1916). He spent most of his later years in the Carmel area where he was an active member of the Carmel Art Association. He died in Salinas, California in 1956.
Lee Fritz Randolph
(1880 - 1956)
Lee Fritz Randolph of San Francisco, California, was an important visiting art teacher in Utah. The Brigham Young University, University of Utah, and Utah State University art programs had been traditionally conservative through the years. In the summer of 1927, Calvin Fletcher, head of the art department of Utah State, went south to Provo for a session of painting under Lee R. Randolph, who was just then a visiting instructor at BYU. Randolph was concerned about the rather traditional artistic approaches that the vast majority of Utah artists were then pursuing and mentioned this observation to Fletcher. Then, since he had been thrown into a quandary because of the San Franciscan's obviously correct appraisal of the local situation, the Utahn finally decided upon a plan of attack for at least updating the program at his own school beginning the following year. Returning to Logan at the end of the term, Fletcher conferred with H. Reuben Reynolds and others of the Utah State staff, and it was resolved that a number of visiting artists, or "artists-in-residence," be invited to the campus starting the next year. Randolph returned to Utah in 1930 as the first of three visitors, and was followed within the subsequent decade by Otis Oldfield and Ralph Stackpole of San Francisco, Birger Sandzen of Kansas, B. J. O. Nordfeldt of New Mexico, and Ralph Pearson of New York. The impact of these visits upon the caliber of the Logan program was decisive through that period and beyond.
Lee Fitz Randolph is a listed regional artist, and has artist biographies online, which I have used to cobble together details of his life. Many of the references to him have his name as Lee FRITZ Randolph, which is incorrect. But it is possible that he adopted this alternative spelling, or that a typo occurred somewhere along the line and the alternate spelling was accepted as the correct one. His father used R. F. Randolph instead of R. Fitz Randolph as his signature.
He was born in Ravenna, Ohio in 1880 to Clara Narcissa Lee Fitz Randolph and Reuben Fitz Randolph. He studied in art in Ohio, then in New York, Paris, and Rome. It was while he was studying in Paris in 1902 that his mother came to visit him there and became ill. She returned home and died soon afterward.
In 1909, Lee first visited California, and he located there in 1913. He specialized in pastels and oils and was known for his landscapes.
He was the director of the California School of Fine Arts from 1917 - 1942, when he retired to the Monterey Peninsula. He died in Salinas, California in 1956.
Biography from the Archives of askART
Born in Ravenna, OH on June 3, 1880. Randolph studied at the Stevenson Art School in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati Art Academy under Duveneck and Noble, and the ASL in NYC under Cox and Bridgman. He then spent four years studying in Rome and six years in Paris at Académie Julian under Laurens and Ecole des Beaux Arts under Bonnat and Merson. His first visit to California was in 1909, but it was in 1913 that he relocated there, living for a while on the Monterey Peninsula and then in San Francisco. He taught at UC Berkeley in 1915-16 and in 1917 began a 25 year tenure as director of the CSFA. Upon retirement, Randolph again lived in Carmel where he was active with the local art association. He died in Monterey, CA on Sept. 3, 1956. Member: Chicago Society of Etchers; Buffalo Society of Artists; Calif. Society of Etchers; Bohemian Club. Exh: Sorosis Club, 1913; PPIE, 1915 (medal); San Francisco Art Association, 1916, 1919 (silver medal); Del Monte Art Gallery; Oakland Art Gallery, 1916; Beaux Arts Gallery (SF), 1926-31; Bohemian Club, 1928, 1932, 1935, 1946; AIC; Paris Salon; SFMA Inaugural, 1935; GGIE, 1939; Foundation of Western Art, 1941. In: De Young Museum; Utah State Univ.; Oakland Museum; Museum of Modern Art (Paris); Luxembourg Museum (Paris); Mills College (Oakland).
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Art in California (R. L. Bernier, 1916); American Art Annual 1919-33; Who's Who in California 1928; Who's Who in American Art 1936-41; California Art Research, 20 volumes; Artists of the American West (Doris Dawdy); Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs (Bénézit, E).
Biography from William A. Karges Fine Art - Carmel
Lee Fritz Randolph was born in Ravenna, Ohio, in 1880. He was a well studied landscape artist, having spent time at Stevenson School in Pittsburgh, the Art Students League in New York, Cincinnati Art Academy, as well as Rome and Paris.
In 1913 Randolph settled in California, where he was Director of the California School of Fine Arts for 25 years.
Randolph continued to paint and was active in the Carmel art scene following his retirement from teaching.
Lee Fritz Randolph
Lee Fritz Randolph (1880–1956), was an American painter, printmaker, educator, and academic administrator. He served as the director of California School of Fine Arts (now known as the San Francisco Art Institute). He taught painting, drawing, and anatomy courses.
Early life and education
Lee Fritz Randolph III was born June 3, 1880, in Ravenna, Ohio. His parents were Clara North (née Lee) and Rev. Reuben Fitz Randolph Jr.. His mother family was from Virginia, and she was a distant relative of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
He studied at the Stevenson Art School in Pittsburgh, under Horatio S. Stevenson; the Cincinnati Art Academy (now Art Academy of Cincinnati), under Thomas Satterwhite Noble and Frank Duveneck; and the Art Students League of New York, under Kenyon Cox, and George Bridgman.
He traveled to Europe for some ten years to study art; including at study at Académie Julian in Paris, under Jean-Paul Laurens; at the Académie Colarossi in Paris; and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, under Léon Bonnat. He later studied in Florence and Rome. His older sister Anna Randolph (1976–1905), committed suicide in Rome on December 27, 1905, two months after Lee had moved to Rome. In 1913, Randolph returned to California.
Career
Randolph was a figurative oil painter, known for his landscape and portraits; and a printmaker, known for his etchings. He was a member of the Bohemian Club, and the California Society of Etchers (now California Society of Printmakers). He was also affiliated with the Foundation for Western Art, and participated in their group exhibitions in the 1940s.
In 1915, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) during the winter semester. He won a bronze medal for painting at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, held in San Francisco.
Randolph served as the director of California School of Fine Arts (or CSFA, now San Francisco Art Institute) from 1917 to 1941. He took a CSFA sabbatical from 1941 to 1942. In 1925, he joined the summer faculty of Brigham Young University's Big Alpine Summer School in the Mount Timpanogos–area of Utah.
The Randolph family moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in the 1940s, where he continued to teach visual art and was a member of the Carmel Art Association.
Death and legacy
Randolph died on September 3, 1956, in Salinas, California. His memorial service was held at Little Chapel by the Sea in Pacific Grove, California, and he was survived by his wife Hilda.
His work is included in museum collections, including at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C.. He previously had his work in the collection at Musée du Luxembourg in Paris (in the 1920s).