Robert Lee Eskridge American, 1891-1975

Robert Lee Eskridge was born in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania and received his art training from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles College of Fine Arts, and Paris. He arrived in Honolulu in 1932 after having spent four years in Tahiti, Mangareva, and other parts of the South Seas.

 

By the time he reached Hawai’i, Eskridge had already evolved a distinct, graphic, and decorative style comparable to those of Eugene Savage and Arman Manookian. His distinctly exotic art deco sensibilities endeared him to selection committees at home and abroad, and in 1933 he attracted favorable international attention for the mural he painted for the Hawaiian exhibit at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. At this time, he also completed several commissions for the Works Progress Administration, including a mural series for the interior of the new Lester McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Park (1937).

 

Robert Lee Eskeridge taught at the University of Hawai’i from 1939 to 1941, simultaneously writing and illustrating books on wrote and illustrated several books about Hawai’i. He remained in Hawai'i for several more years, returned for long periods of time, and died in Honolulu. His paintings were exhibited in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Paris as well as in galleries and group exhibitions in Hawai’i.