Albert Barrows (1893-1958) American, Oil on Board. Signed "A.W. Barrows" bottom right. Signed again on the back and titled "Sea Fog." 

Overall: 27 1/4 X 36 1/2 in. 

Sight: 23 1/4 X 32 1/4 in. 

#2730 . 

Albert Winfield Barrows was born February 7th, 1893 in San Francisco, California. Matriculating through the public school system, he at first pursued a career as a mechanical engineer, starting work as a draftsman for a local architect in 1910. He moved to Berkeley after marrying Lillie Roberta, and was drafted into the Army in 1917, joining the Corps of Engineers and working on aircraft designs. He spent two years in a sanatorium overcoming what would one day be known as post-traumatic stress disorder. As part of his rehabilitation he attended art classes taught by the architect and etcher George Plowman in Koblenz, Germany, and his desire to focus on art full time saved his life. In 1922 he moved with his wife to Monterey, becoming a student of Armin Hansen and presenting his first pieces at the 16th Annual Exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Club in Carmel. In 1924 he held his first solo exhibition at San Francisco’s Galerie Beaux Arts, which received mild accolades in regional newspapers due to the unorthodox style he was beginning to develop. His approach grew increasingly minimalist, and he started contributing to galleries and museums along the California coast. In the early 1930s Barrows was briefly an instructor at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and divorced Lillie after engaging in an affair with fellow artist Edith Hamlin. He married Edith in 1934, and in 1935 he was elected the first president of the newly organized Society of Mural Artists of San Francisco. He convinced the Federal Housing Administration to fund large paintings that could be rented or purchased by owners of private homes, but his brash and highly opinionated style put him at arm's length with many local artists, particularly as he began to develop a short-lived local political career. He divorced Edith in 1936 and abandoned oil painting in favor of a growing fascination with photography. He married Mary Bacon, a widow with two children, in 1939, and remained with her the rest of his life in their home in Kentfield, where he died on July 25th, 1958.