Robert Gilbert (1907 – 1988)

The Gas Station, c. 1930s, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 25 x 20 inches; presented in newer frame

SOLD

The Gas Station is a rare Southern California urban scene from the Great Depression. At a time when California art was recognized primarily for watercolors and bucolic plein air paintings of rural scenes, Gilbert’s canvases went in a different direction.  As Los Angeles Times art critic Arthur Millier noted, “Gilbert is heavy but he looks outside himself for local character. His gas stations and oil refineries are true to life and his portraits . . . are convincing.” Not satisfied with memetic depictions of his subject, Gilbert adopted a stylized, almost machine-like aesthetic for his gas station attendant, so that his figure harmonizes neatly with the simplified gas and air pumps in the background.

Robert Gilbert was a Southern California painter. A native of Santa Ana, Gilbert studied at Los Angeles’ Chouinard School of Art. He was a well-regarded member of the arts community during the 1930s, exhibiting with the Painters & Sculptors of Los Angeles, the Progressive Painters of Southern California, the California Watercolor Society, and at the San Francisco Art Museum. Gilbert is listed in Eden Hughes’ Artists of California 1786 – 1940.