San Francisco artists Arthur F. Mathews (1860-1945) and Lucia K. Mathews (1870-1955) produced murals, easel paintings, furniture, interior design, graphics, wooden frames, and other objects in what has come to be known as the California Decorative Style. Arthur's easel paintings and murals placed figures of myth and allegory in idyllic California settings that evoke a new Arcadia, where they danced, in fanciful Greek garb, through light-filled landscapes. Similarly prolific, Lucia painted portraits, landscapes, and botanicals in a soft color palette; her dreamy, windswept scenes of the Monterey Peninsula are accented with diffused light and a golden glow. Committed to their mission of treasuring the California they knew and loved, while urging their community forward in the quest for high artistic values, Arthur and Lucia Mathews were key players in California history and in encouraging a West Coast aesthetic.
The Art of Arthur and Lucia MathewsĀ is the most comprehensive Mathews retrospective ever published. A thorough overview of the decorative arts as they evolved in California, it also surveys the Mathewses' predecessors, their contemporaries, and the artists whose work they influenced.
Ā