Augusta Rathbone

Augusta Payne Briggs Rathbone (November 30, 1897 – March 19, 1990) was an American painter, etcher and printmaker. She studied at the University of California, Berkeley and in Paris. She depicted people and locations from San Francisco, the Sierra, New York City, the West Coast of Canada, the Canadian Rockies, and France. In 1938, she published a book of aquatints of French Riviera Villages with photographs by Juliet Thompson and text by Virginia Thompson. Her work appeared internationally in group and solo exhibitions, and continues to appear in retrospectives of American printmaking.

Early life

Augusta Payne Briggs Rathbone was born to Henry Bowen Rathbone and Julia Payne Briggs, in Berkeley, California on December 30, 1897. She was raised by French-speaking aunts and attended Miss Hamlin’s School for Girls and Young Ladies in San Francisco. and a minor in French. Her teachers included Lucien Simon and .

Career Rathbone spent extended periods of time in France and had a studio at the American University Women's Club in Paris (later Reid Hall).

Rathbone was introduced to printmaking by the American artist Norah Hamilton of Chicago in 1927. Hamilton suggested that etching would be an effective technique for the strong lines of Rathbone's charcoal and gouache drawings.

By the early 1930s Rathbone had developed a series of works based on the San Francisco Bay area, and another focusing on the Lake Tahoe-Sierra Nevada areas. In the mid 1930s Rathbone created a series of etchings and colored aquatints based on her travels in the towns and villages of Brittany and the French Riviera. She collaborated with Juliet and Virginia Thompson, resulting in the book French Riviera Villages (1938). Juliet Thompson provided photographs, while Virginia Thompson wrote the text. Mitchell Kennerley published the book, producing twelve of Rathbone’s color aquatints in pochoir. She had a solo show at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1940.

Rathbone’s work has been included in retrospective shows of American printmaking. Rathbone was part of the book and exhibition A Spectrum of Innovation: Color in American Printmaking, 1890-1960 (1990), curated by David Acton for the Worcester Art Museum.

She was a member of the San Francisco Women Artists, the California Society of Etchers, the American Artists Professional League and the National Arts Club.

Augusta Rathbone died on March 19, 1990, in Palo Alto, California.