Artist Arthur Mathews spent most of his life in Oakland, CA. He studied painting in Paris in the 1880s and was greatly influenced by French figurative murals, Whistler's tonalism, and Japanese prints. Back in California, he was the director of California School of Design from 1890 to 1906. In 1894, he married his student Lucia Kleinhans, an outstanding artist with whom he had a long and successful collaboration. In addition to their many mutual projects, Arthur created a number of award-winning California-themed murals. He died in 1967.