Fred Farnsworth Livingston (1908-2006) American, Oil on Board. Depicts a woman having her dress measured for alteration by two other girls. Signed bottom right. 

Overall: 30 1/2 X 23 in. 

Sight: 30 X 22 in. 

#3799 . 

Fred Farnsworth Livingston was born in Hyattville, Wyoming on September 24th, 1908. His childhood was difficult and his family moved frequently, as his father was a miner who followed news of gold, copper, or silver strains uncovered throughout the Pacific Northwest. He survived numerous freezing winters and natural disasters, and finally graduated from high school in Westboro, Missouri. He received a football scholarship and attended the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1927. He spent two years there, studying business and engineering as well as learning how to box. In 1929 he was brought to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to play football for the Calgary Tigers under coach Wally Sterling, future president of Stanford University. It was here he met and fell in love with Olive Merle Dunn, as well as working for the Calgary Albertan newspaper. They returned to Colorado for Fred to finish his schooling after a football injury in 1931, and got married in 1935, eventually having a son. He worked as an editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and was exposed to art for the first time when the family moved to San Francisco in 1938 to prepare for promoting the 1939 World’s Fair. Olive began studying watercolors and encouraged him to pursue painting as well. In addition to working for the San Francisco News he began to paint in oils, and his work was included in many local exhibitions along with his wife. He often used his position at the paper to boost and promote the ever-growing arts scene. As World War II came to an end he helped organize the Bay Area Council, a collaboration of all newspaper publishers in the region. In 1951 the family moved to Burlingame, and he became an account executive and sales manager for the San Francisco Chronicle until 1974, when he retired. In his final decades he was an enthusiastic golfer, bridge player, and member of the Peninsula Golf and Country Club, although he became more reclusive after Olive died in 1989. He was named Burlingame Art Society’s Artist of the Year in 1993 for his oil paintings, and passed away peacefully on August 5th, 2006, having spent almost an entire century in and around the West Coast of America.