16 Facts About Edwin Deakin

Edwin Deakin was a British-American artist best known for his romantic landscapes as well as his architectural studies, especially the Spanish colonial missions of California.

Edwin Deakin was born in Sheffield, England, on May 21,1838.

Edwin Deakin was apprenticed at the age of 12 to a business which painted landscapes and floral designs on furniture in the "Japanese style," but he received no formal training.

Edwin Deakin quickly established a successful career as a painter of the untamed California wilderness.

Edwin Deakin became an exhibiting member of the Graphic Club and Bohemian Club.

Edwin Deakin exhibited dozens of paintings to positive reviews at the California State Fair between 1879 and 1889.

Edwin Deakin traveled extensively through the Midwest and had prolonged stays in both Denver and Salt Lake City.

Edwin Deakin's highly publicized disputes with the "rebels" of the San Francisco art colony caused him to withdraw in 1885 as an exhibiting member of the SFAA.

In 1891, Edwin Deakin moved with his wife and two daughters to the university town of Berkeley, just across the bay from San Francisco, where he built a large residence and studio-gallery.

Edwin Deakin soon began a tradition of holding an annual studio exhibit open to the public.

Edwin Deakin still maintained a small sales office in San Francisco and continued to contribute his paintings to that city's auctions and private galleries.

Edwin Deakin's one-man show in April 1900 at the Palace Hotel featured all of his 21 California Spanish mission paintings, many in elaborate iconographic frames designed by the artist himself.

Edwin Deakin exhibited frequently at public venues in Oakland as well as in Berkeley where he actively supported the creation of the Berkeley Art Association in 1907.

Edwin Deakin helped to design and decorate his brother's Studio Building in Berkeley, which became the first home for the California School of Arts and Crafts and the professional address of many prominent artists, including Henry Joseph Breuer and Evelyn Withrow.

Edwin Deakin expanded his Berkeley gallery to maintain a permanent display of one of the three sets of his mission paintings and allowed the public to visit three days a week.

Edwin Deakin was a British citizen at the time of his death on May 11,1923.