‘Woman in Aqua’ by Jade Fon Woo, De Young, Oakland Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, American Watercolor Society, San Francisco

Signed lower right, ‘Jade Fon’ for Jade Fon Woo (American, 1911-1983) and painted circa 1955.

A charming and character-filled study of a young woman, shown brimming with life and humor and displaying the artist’s talent for deft psychological penetration.

Jade Fon (Woo) was born in San Jose, California and attended the University of Arizona at Flagstaff before continuing his higher education at the University of New Mexico. In the 1930s, he moved to Los Angeles where he attended the Otis Art Institute and the Art Students League. As a movie studio artist, Fon worked on numerous sets including ‘Gone With the Wind’. Moving to San Francisco, he worked briefly at the Forbidden City nightclub on Sutter Street, creating watercolors of patrons and performers. He also taught at Diablo Valley College for thirty years and founded a successful watercolor workshop school in Asilomar. Over the course of a long career, Jade Fon exhibited widely and with success including at the San Francisco Art Association (1937), the de Young Museum, Oakland Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the American Watercolor Society. He was the recipient of more than 200 medals, prizes and juried awards. He was also active in the arts community and was a member of numerous art associations including the National Academy of Design, the California Watercolor Society, the American Watercolor Society, the West Coast Watercolor Society, the San Francisco Art Association and the Society of Western Artists among others.

Reference:
Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 2, page 1213; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 3, page 3623; Gordon McClelland and Jay Last, The California Style, et al.