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Arthur Hill Gilbert, A.N.A. Biography
Arthur Hill Gilbert was born in Mount Vernon, Illinois, on June 10, 1894.  An impressionist landscape painter, he was especially known for majestic oaks, rolling hills, giant rocks, beating surf and cloud forms of surpassing beauty of the Monterey Peninsula. Gilbert graduated from the Evanston Academy in 1913 and then spent two years at Northwestern University. In 1917 he attended the United States Naval Academy Officer's School at Annapolis and then served abroad. Following his military service, he moved to Southern California around 1920 embarking on a course of serious art studies.  He enrolled first at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, spending three years there before continuing his studies for two more years at the Chicago Art Institute. He had further training in Paris and London. For the next ten years he painted and exhibited in Southern California. An Impressionist, his palette seldom varied and stayed mainly in the blue, yellow, green, and pastel shades. In 1928 he moved to Monterey, lured by his love of green oaks and rolling hills. He and his wife Audine, whom he had married in 1932, established a home and studio on Munras Street in Monterey.  Gilbert received national recognition for his work and in 1929 was awarded the Hallgarten Prize from the National Academy of Design, followed in 1930 by the Ranger Purchase Prize and the J. Francis Murphy Prize given by the National Academy for the most distinguished landscape of the year.  He was one of the early and very active members of the Carmel Art Association. He was president in 1931 and served on the Carmel Art Association Board of Directors from 1929 to 1936, and again in 1941-43 and 1950-51. As one of the participants in the 1931 show of National Academicians, he helped raise funds for a permanent home for the Carmel Art Association. During his later years, Gilbert spent most of his time on his ranch near Stockton continuing to paint the California landscape of rolling golden hills and live oak trees, the subject matter for which he had become famous. He died there on April 28, 1970.

Member: Associate National Academician, 1930; California Art Club; Carmel Art Association; Laguna Beach Art Association; Bohemian Club, San Francisco; Salmagundi Club, New York.

Exhibited: Laguna Beach AA, 1921; Orange County Show, 1921 (3rd prize), 1928 (2nd prize); California Art Club, 1921; California State Fair, 1922 (prize), 1930; Ebell Club (LA), 1924; Stendahl Galleries (LA), 1926; Painters of the West, 1927; Springville (UT) Annual, 1927; National Academy of Design, 1929 (Hallgarten prize), 1930 (Ranger & Murphy prizes); Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1928; GGIE, 1939.

In: CPLH; LACMA; Monterey Museum of Art; Bohemian Club; NAD; Mission Inn (Riverside).

Source:  "Artists in California, 1786 - 1940" by Edan Milton Hughes; Our First Five National Academicians/CAA, 1989.