Alfred R. Mitchell

Alfred R. Mitchell (1888-1972) was an American landscape painter. He was an early California Impressionist painter. Educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he was the president of the San Diego Art Guild and the La Jolla Art Association. He became known as the "Dean of San Diego County artists". His father George Mitchell (ca. 1855-1927) worked as a waiter, an insurance man, and a farmer, while his mother Carrie Swazey Mitchell (1858-1928) was a college-educated schoolteacher. Mitchell had two siblings: George Rankin Mitchell (1895-1986) and Carrie Mitchell (1898-1968). The family migrated west in 1903 and set themselves up in the hotel business in the gold country of west central Nevada. In 1908, the Mitchells moved to San Diego, California and opened what would become a successful cafeteria, "Mitchell’s."

Mitchell left home as a teenager. At age 17, he was living on his own and making a living driving a stagecoach and working on the railroad in western Nevada. After a few years, however, he returned to work in the cafeteria and make up for the years of education that he had lost. He served in the United States Army between April 1918 and February 1919 during World War I.

The Mitchells carved out studio space in apartments and rented houses before building their own house in the Golden Hill neighborhood of San Diego in 1937. Architect Lloyd Ruocco, working in the office of Richard S. Requa, designed an inexpensive but unique house that incorporated two studios.

Career Mitchell produced carefully rendered realist paintings in a style known as California Impressionism or California Plein-Air Painting. Early works include "Sunset Glow, California" (1924), "Morning on the Bay" (1923–25), and "Summer Hills" (1929) that captured the beginning of San Diegoʻs suburban sprawl.

Starting in 1933, Mitchell and other members of the San Diego Art Guild organized an annual Art Mart, an outdoor market on the lawn of the San Diego Public Library. Outdoor sales continued into the 1960s. He served as president of the La Jolla Art Association from 1951 to 1961.

Mitchell taught painting and drawing through the Adult Education Program of the San Diego City Schools between 1922 and 1953. He offered private classes from 1923 to 1966.

Mitchell’s championship of the San Diego’s art and cultural scene caused him to acknowledged as the "Dean of San Diego County artists" in 1950.

Death Mitchell died on November 9, 1972, at the age of 84. His wife Dorothea Webster Mitchell survived him, living until 1984.

Awards Silver Medal, Panama-California Exposition, 1915 The Cresson European Traveling Scholarship, 1920 The Philadelphia Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1920 The Leisser-Farnham Prize, San Diego, 1937 Purchase Prize, Buck Hill Falls Art Association, Pennsylvania, 1939 Highest Award, Laguna Beach Art Association, 1940 First Prize, San Diego County Fair, 1950 and 1951 Award of Distinction, San Diego Art Institute Fiesta Del Pacifico, 1956 Invited Honorary Invitational Exhibition, Laguna Beach, 1948 Invited California Exhibition, Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939 and 1940 First Award and Purchase Prize for Oil Painting, San Diego Art Institute Annual Exhibition, 1960

Memberships California Art Club Laguna Beach Art Association San Diego Art Guild La Jolla Art Association Contemporary Artists of San Diego Chula Vista Art Guild

Galleries and public collections Irvine Museum, Irvine, California San Diego Museum of Art (Silent Light: Alfred Mitchell 2018 exhibition) San Diego Museum of Man (San Diego Museum of Us) San Diego History Center San Diego Public Library Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, Iowa University of West Virginia The Reading Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania Ohio Wesleyan University Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution