Francis McComas (1875-1938)

 

Francis McComas was born in Tasmania in 1875 and first studied art at his native Sydney Technical College.  In 1898 McComas left Australia for San Francisco via Samoa and Hawaii, and enrolled in the California School of Design.  Following further study at the Academie Julian in Paris, McComas moved to Carmel, California, in 1912 and one year later was one of only 3 Californians invited to exhibit at the seminal Armory Show in NYC.

 

McComas was a frequent visitor to the American southwest, and during those trips he found the opportunity to diverge from the tonal early San Francisco palette and expore more forward thinking modernist principles in his depictions of the sheer cliffs at Walpi and Canyon de Chelly.

 

An exceptional watercolorist whose works were popular at Monterey’s Del Monte Gallery, Francis McComas died in Monterey in 1938.