Robert Eskridge, (1891-1975)

Waikiki 47 3/4 x 71 1/4in framed 52 x 75in

Waikiki
unsigned
oil on canvas
47 3/4 x 71 1/4in
framed 52 x 75in
Painted circa 1945.

Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist's estate, circa 1977.
Michael Horikawa Fine Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Private collection, New York.

The dazzling murals, oil paintings and watercolors of Robert Lee Eskridge closely resemble those of other leading Art Deco painters of the period; bright and stylized in design, and enlivened by a rhythmic scheme of opposing, interwoven contours. Living for times in Philadelphia, Chicago and California, he cultivated a worldly perspective in his style. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles College of Fine Arts. He came under the tutelage of Robert Henri and André Lhote in Paris. This led to a four-year sojourn in Tahiti and French Polynesia, eventually settling in Hawaii on a whim in 1932. He quickly found work with the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), as his arrival to Hawaii coincided with a deluge of mural commissions that were particularly well-suited to his decorative style. Waikiki exemplifies the classic Hawaiian imagery of the day; young, tanned men and women with tall surfboards along the waters of Waikiki. Icons representing the image of paradise and the South Seas.