- Bruce Porter
Bruce Porter (
23 February 1865 ,San Francisco –25 November 1953 , San Francisco) was an American painter, sculptor, stained-glass designer, writer, muralist, landscape designer and art critic. He spent his youth inMartinez, California where his father was the editor of the local newspaper, but was later educated in San Francisco, Paris, London and Venice.His tonalist paintings which are rare include "Man and Nature" (1903) and "Presidio Cliffs" which was exhibited at the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915).Some of Porter's stained-glass designs can be found at St Mary's Episcopal Church in
Pacific Grove, California , Swedenborgian Church (1895) and the Le Petit Trianon mansion (1904), both in San Francisco. Windows he designed adorn churches in Monterey, Stockton,San Mateo andCoronado, California .As a landscape designer, Porter created the gardens at the
Filoli estate (1917) inWoodside, California , designed the landscaping at Memorial Stadium at theUniversity of California at Berkeley (1923), designed the Memorial Arch (1919) on Saratoga-Los Gatos Road inSaratoga, California and provided landscaping for several private homes.Porter's other accomplishments included designing the
Robert Louis Stevenson monument inPortsmouth Square in San Francisco. His many murals include those at the Pacific Union Club and the First Unitarian church, also in San Francisco.Porter also wrote art criticisms for local newspapers. For two years, 1895 to 1897, Porter, along with
Gelett Burgess and William Doxey, published the literary magazine "The Lark". Porter also contributed to "Arts in California" (1916), a book that compiled the art works exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.References
* Artists in California 1786 - 1940 (1989), Edan Milton Hughes
* Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers (1986), Mantle Fielding
* Arts in California (1916), Bruce Porter, Porter Garnett, et al
* San Francisco Chronicle, 26 November 1953 (obit)
* [http://www.saratogachamber.org Saratoga Chamber of Commerce]
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