C. S. Price

Clayton Sumner "C. S." Price (1874 – 1950) was an American expressionist painter from Oregon.

Biography Price was born on May 11, 1874, near Bedford, Iowa, and raised on farms and ranches there and in Wyoming and Alberta, Canada. Price attended the school during the 1905–1906 academic year; it would be his only formal training. This was soon followed by an exhibit of "pastoral scenes" at Helgesen's Gallery. From 1917 to 1920 he studied as an occasional student at the California School of Fine Arts (today's San Francisco Art Institute) under Pedro Joseph de Lemos, Lee Fritz Randolph, and Frank Van Sloun, and was awarded a second prize at the school's annual exhibit in 1920.

By 1921 he was sharing a Monterey studio and residential address with artist William Gaskin and the Fauvist painter August Gay, a member of the Society of Six, at the old French Hotel, known as the Stevenson House. Price was first described as a very quiet "Bible-reading man" who painted illustrative cowboy scenes. He earned money by working at the local cannery and making picture frames. He studied with the popular Post-Impressionist painter Armin Hansen. In April 1922 he was one of three Monterey artists invited by Pedro Joseph de Lemos to exhibit at Stanford University, where, according to one critic, his ten displayed works were reminiscent of Frederic Remington. Shortly thereafter he exhibited at the: Del Monte Art Gallery (Monterey); Carmel Arts and Crafts Club; and California Gallery of American Art (San Francisco). His art was attracting wealthy buyers. At this time he was in a very public and romantic relationship with the artist Ina Perham. In the summer of 1925 his decidedly Expressionist canvases, along with his earlier paintings, were given a one-man show at San Francisco's Galerie des Beaux Arts. When critics evaluated his new works, they called him a "colorist" with no interest in drawing, but they also claimed that he "set a high mark for Modernists." His huge scaled model of the town of "old Monterey" was displayed on the Peninsula. That summer a jury accepted his art for the exhibit at the California State Fair. Although he moved to Portland in 1929 he maintained an active schedule of exhibitions in northern California.