Partridge, Roi, 1888-1984

Roi Patridge (born George Roy Partridge) was a modernist etcher and member of the San Francisco artistic circle that included Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Maynard Dixon and Imogen Cunningham. Born in 1888, he grew up in Seattle, where at the age of ten he was enrolled in his first art class. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute, studied painting at the National Academy of Design in New York City, and studied etching in Munich, Germany and Paris, France (where he lived for three years). While in Paris, Partridge was invited to exhibit with the Chicago Society of Etchers, by Bertha Jaques, the Society's organizer. Upon his return to Seattle in 1914, he developed a relationship with and later married the photographer Imogen Cunningham. The couple moved to San Francisco in 1917 and became a significant force in the local art scene. By 1920, Partridge was teaching at Mills College in Oakland, CA. Eventually, he became chair of the art department. He was also the first director of the Mills College Art Gallery, organizing a seminal exhibition that included Alexander Archipenko, Ansel Adams, Diego Rivera, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston. With many of his associates donating artwork to the gallery, Partridge was able to develop the first public collection of modern art in Northern California. His work is part of a number of significant collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the British Museum, the Toronto Art Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum, the San Diego Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum and the Mills College Art Gallery.

From the description of Roi Partridge papers, 1912-1966. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 26754681

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