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Lee Fritz Randolph Biography
Etcher - portrait & landscape painter - teacher
One of California’s most revered artists

Randolph was born in Ravenna, Ohio. Art studies began at age 17 in Pittsburgh, then in NYC followed by training in Paris. In 1913 he and his wife moved to Pacific Grove. He established a studio near the San Carlos mission and later occupied the old Sarah Parke-Lester Boronda “atelier” in Monterey. He exhibited locally as well as in San Francisco.

In the fall of 1914, he moved to San Francisco and taught at UC Berkeley in 1915-16 and in 1917 began a 25-year tenure as Director of the California School of Fine Arts. From 1914 to the 1940s Randolph was a regular exhibitor at the SFAA. In the spring of 1916, he divided his time between the Pebble Beach cottage of Sarah Parke and Pacific Grove. In the spring of 1928 and 1935 at the Agricultural College in Logan, Utah he exhibited landscapes and nudes along with William Clapp, Maurice Logan and other prominent California artists.

During the 1930s he was spending so much time in Carmel that he joined the Carmel Art Association (CAA) and was on the organizing committee for its benefit Bal Masque at the Del Monte Hotel. In August of 1943 the Randolph’s permanently moved to Carmel where he exhibited, taught and lectured. As a long-standing member of the CAA, he was elected to its board of directors between 1944 and 1950 and occasionally served on its hanging committee. He died at the age of 76. Services were held in Pacific Grove at the Little Chapel by the Sea.

Member: Chicago Society of Etchers; Buffalo Society of Artists; Calif. Society of Etchers; Bohemian Club; Carmel Art Association.

Exhibited: Sorosis Club, 1913; Annual Exhibition of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, 1913; Art Institute of Chicago,1914; Chicago Society of Etchers; PPIE, 1915 (medal); SFAA, 1916, 1919 (silver medal) – Honorary Life Membership, 1953; Del Monte Art Gallery; Oakland Art Gallery, 1916; Beaux Arts Gallery (SF), 1926-31; Bohemian Club, 1928, 1932, 1935, 1946; AIC; Paris Salon; SFMA Inaugural, 1935; Brigham Young University, 1936; Heyburn Annual Exhibition (Idaho), 1937; GGIE, 1939; Foundation of Western Art, 1941.

In: De Young Museum; Utah State Univ.; Oakland Museum; Museum of Modern Art (Paris); Luxembourg Museum (Paris); Mills College (Oakland).