William S. Rice, "California Live Oak"

WILLIAM S. RICE
1873-1963

California Live Oak
Etching, undated

William Rice was born in Pennsylvania and studied at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art and the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. In 1900 he moved to California and became Supervisor of Art in the Public Schools. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1910, where he taught high school and college level art courses for thirty-six years. He was a talented artist in the Craftsman tradition, working in watercolor and oil, ceramics, copper and wood, but printmaking was his special skill. He mastered all its forms, and was best known for colored woodcuts (influenced by Japanese prints), and drypoints. He wrote three books on printmaking, and his work was exhibited widely, including a one-man show at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Rice’s art work is represented in the National American Art Museum and the Library of Congress.

--Lois Smalley and Kathleen Durham