Alfred Rodriguez (1862-1890)
View to the Bay from Oakland
oil on canvas
10″ x 14″
Born in Mexico in 1862, Alfred Rodriguez settled in San Francisco as a small boy. He studied art locally at the School of Design under Virgil Williams and with Jules Tavernier ,who stated “Rodriguez was the ablest pupil I ever taught.”
By age 18, he had established a studio in Oakland. A handsome man with black flashing eyes and an ingratiating smile, he was well liked in the San Francisco art world and received glowing reviews from art critics during the 1880s.
He often made sketching trips accompanied by artists George Redding and Harry Cassie Best, his pupil. A fine landscape painter, he had just begun to do his best work when, at age 28, he died of consumption in San Francisco on March 6, 1890. His works are rare.
Exhibitions:
Mechanics’ Institute (SF), 1879-88; San Francisco Art Association,1883-90; California State Fair, 1883-88; California Midwinter Int’l Expo, 1894; Oakland Art Fund, 1905.
Collection: California Historical Society
Edan Hughes, “Artists in California, 1786-1940”
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