Guy Rose

Guy Orlando Rose (March 3, 1867 – November 17, 1925) was an American Impressionist painter and California resident, who received national recognition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Early life and education Guy Orlando Rose was born March 3, 1867, in San Gabriel, California. He was the seventh child of Leonard John Rose and Amanda Jones Rose. His father was a prominent California senator. He and his wife raised their large family on an expansive Southern California ranch and vineyard – the San Gabriel Valley town of Rosemead bears the family name.

On September 12, 1888, Rose enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris and studied with Benjamin-Constant, Jules Lefebvre, Lucien Doucet, and Jean-Paul Laurens while in Paris. In 1888–89, he won a scholarship at the Académie Delacluse and contributed religious and figural studies as well as landscapes to the Paris Salons in 1890, 1891, 1894, 1900, and 1909. He met fellow student brothers Frank Vincent DuMond and Frederick Melville DuMond at the Académie Julian – Frank Vincent DuMond and Guy Rose were to remain lifelong friends.

Career Rose lived in New York City, New York in the 1890s and illustrated for Harper's, Scribners, and Century. Choosing to return to France in 1899, he and his wife Ethel Rose bought a cottage at Giverny. In 1900, he resided in Paris and spent the winter in Briska, Algeria where he painted three paintings one of which was Portrait of an Algerian.

From 1913 to 1914, the Roses summered in and held an outdoor sketching school at Narragansett, Rhode Island.

Suffering on and off again from the effects of lead poisoning, Rose and his wife moved permanently to Los Angeles, California in 1914.

Between 1918 and 1920, the Roses not only painted in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California as summer residents, they became exhibiting members of the local art colony. In 1919, they leased the Carmel cottage of artist Alice Comins. Guy's oils appeared at the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Annual Exhibitions of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club in 1919 and 1920. In the fall of 1921, his two Carmel paintings at the Hotel Del Monte Art Gallery in Monterey were said to “possess the charm of the subject . . . rendered with much feeling.”

In Los Angeles, Guy Rose taught and served as Director of the Stickney Memorial Art School in Pasadena.

In 1921, he suffered a debilitating stroke that left him paralyzed. Guy Rose died in Pasadena, California on November 17, 1925. In 1926, the Stendahl Gallery held a memorial exhibition of his works.

As of 2026, Crocker Art Museum holds the largest Guy Rose museum collection in the world. A retrospective titled "Guy Rose: Impressionist" opens in May 2027 featuring 85+ paintings at the Crocker Art Museum.

Image gallery