Elizabeth Mailliard (1922 – 1994)

San Francisco Fog, 1952, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 20 x 24 inches, label verso bears title and “#17”, Gumps (San Francisco) label verso, exhibited Paintings by Elizabeth Mailliard, Jean Paul and Edith Gaylor Mueller, Lucien Labaudt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, March 31 - April, 1953

$4250

Elizabeth Mailliard's San Francisco Fog is a prime example of mid-century abstraction that draws on objective concrete references, in this case, the Bay Area skyline, bridges and waterfront. Writing about this painting when it was exhibited as part of a three-women exhibition at Lucien Labaudt Gallery, San Francisco Chronicle art critic Alfred Frankenstein remarked, “Mrs. Mailliard’s representation is the largest, the most varied and the most important; it covers a good deal of ground, and it is herewith recommended to those who have trouble seeing the point of abstract art. Mrs. Mailliard makes able and telling use of the freely organic and the strictly geometric shapes of the abstract tradition, but her pictures seem always to arise from some aspect or experience of the external world. At least they are adorned with titles like . . . San Francisco Fog and the title is always borne out by the emotional suggestion of the painting. Perhaps these names are all afterthoughts, but whether they reveal sources or are intended merely as secondary comments is not a matter of great importance. What is important is that Mrs. Mailliard’s pictures are beautifully designed, that they employ an extraordinary range of surface textures and that the freest of them is clearly planned so that her show exhibits neither the obscurity nor the mysterious challenge of accident. And from Mrs. Mailliard’s clarity, an allusiveness of the greater complexity and the self-sufficiency of other abstract painters should be an easy step.”

Elizabeth Mailiard was a California artist, who was best known for working in an abstract idiom. Born in Oxford, England, Mailliard was the daughter of painter and Royal Academician James Gunn. After marrying an American at the outset of World War II, she moved to the United States and studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, where she won an award of merit for lithography in 1944 as part of the annual student art competition. The same year, a Mailliard print was selected as one of the year’s best and entered the collection of the New York Public Library. She was an active member of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists, where she served as President and Membership Chair, and the San Francisco Art Association. As early as 1946, her work caught the attention of San Francisco art critic Emilia Hodel who proclaimed that Mailliard’s “delightful primitive” was the “find of the show” at the 21^st Annual Exhibition of San Francisco Society of Women Artists at the San Francisco Art Museum. She won the 1949 Kingsley Purchase Prize for best print and the 1950 C. M. Goethe Memorial Award for oil painting, both at the Crocker Art Museum. She also exhibited at the Laguna Beach Art Museum, the Print Club of Philadelphia, de Young Art Museum, Carnegie Institute, and Library of Congress. Mailliard’s work was handled commercially by Gumps and Lucien Labaudt Gallery, both in San Francisco. She taught lithography and printmaking privately from her home studio during the late 1940s. One of her students recalled, “She is an outstanding personality, an earnest and conscientious teacher and a gifted artist, who is investigating all known expression of the lithographic medium for the advancement of her students.” The San Francisco Chronicle did a feature article on Mailliard in 1948, discussing her ability to balance working as a professional artist, wife and mother.

Between 1940 and 1953, Mailliard was married to naval officer, war hero, and Republican Congressman, William S. Mailliard. After the couple divorced, Mailliard married Frederick William Quandt, a photography instructor at the California School of Fine Arts. She won an honorable mention for photography in 1953 at the annual exhibition of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists at the San Francisco Art Museum. A fellow prize winner at the same show was Imogen Cunningham. After her marriage to Quandt, the former Mrs. Mailliard devoted more attention to her photography practice, and she continued to exhibit along side Cunningham and Alma Lavenson. Mailliard also continued to show her paintings and win prizes at juried exhibitions, including at the 1959 San Francisco Art Association Annual at the San Francisco Art Museum. Mailliard and Quandt moved to Sonoma County in 1957, where Quandt died in 1964. Mailliard then returned to school and earned a MFA degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and married the sculptor, Roger Barr. She was a supporter of the arts community in Sonoma County and was a founder of the annual juried art exhibition known as the Atrium, the parent organization of the Sonoma County Arts Council. She served as an art instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College. Later in her career, Mailliard explored a variety of media, including watercolors, drawing, and book design. In addition to the New York Public Library, her works are in the collections of Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts and Stanford University.