Theodore Wores
Illustration — The Lei Maker, oil on canvas painting by Theodore Wores, 1901, Honolulu Museum of Art Theodore Wores (August 1, 1859 – September 11, 1939) was an American painter. He was from San Francisco, and travelled extensively including periods in Germany, Japan, Hawaii, and Samoa.
Also recorded as theo. wores · Wores
Theodore Wores

Theodore Wores · Honolulu Museum of Art · Public domain
- Born
- 1859 · San Francisco.
- Died
- 1939 · San Francisco.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- painter · illustrator
- Fields
- landscape · portrait
- Teachers
- Joseph Harrington
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — The Lei Maker, oil on canvas painting by Theodore Wores, 1901, Honolulu Museum of Art Theodore Wores (August 1, 1859 – September 11, 1939) was an American painter. He was from San Francisco, and travelled extensively including periods in Germany, Japan, Hawaii, and Samoa.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Theodore Wores. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q7782112 · wikipedia · Theodore Wores
In this article
Life
Life
Training under Joseph Harrington is recorded. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape and portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Canada, Munich and Japan. Work by Theodore Wores is recorded in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Theodore Wores was born on August 1, 1859, in San Francisco, son of Joseph Wores and Gertrude Liebke. His father worked as a hat manufacturer in San Francisco. Wores began his art training at age twelve in the studio of Joseph Harrington, who taught him color, composition, drawing and perspective. When the California School of Design (later known as San Francisco Art Institute) opened in 1874, Wores was one of the first pupils to enroll. After one year at that school under the landscape painter Virgil Macey Williams, he continued his art education at the Royal Academy in Munich where he spent six years. He also painted with William Merritt Chase and Frank Duveneck. Wores returned to San Francisco in 1881. He went to Japan for two extended visits and had successful exhibitions of his Japanese paintings in New York City and London, where he became friends with James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Oscar Wilde. He visited Hawaii and Samoa in 1901 to 1902 and established a home in San Francisco about 1906. He visited Hawaii for a second time in 1910 to 1911. He was married in 1910, in San Francisco to Carolyn Bauer. For the remainder of his career, Wores painted the coast on the western edge of San Francisco. He died from a heart attack in San Francisco on September 11, 1939.
Works
Works
• 1900 - Custom House, Monterey, oil on pressboard, Shasta State Historic Park, Shasta County, California • 1901 - Hawaiian House, oil on canvas • 1901 - The Lei Maker, oil on canvas, Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii • Illustration — Hawaiian House (1901) oil on canvas painting by Theodore Wores • Illustration — House and Garden, Saratoga • Illustration — Chinese Restaurant, (1884) oil on canvas, Crocker Art Museum

This painting of the entrance to San Francisco Bay was done by Theodore Wores. The painting depicts rocks, some covered with wildflowers, jutting out above the water where the Pacific Ocean meets San Francisco Bay. Just visible in the background is the tip of the peninsula and the city of San Francisco. Wores was an American painter from San Francisco. He studied at the San Francisco School of Des
Theodore Wores

This oil on canvas painting was done by Theodore Wores depicting the location where the Pacific Ocean meets San Francisco Bay. It looks out from Lands End, the point in what is now Golden Gate State Park, toward the Pacific. Wores was an American painter from San Francisco. He studied at the San Francisco School of Design and the Munich Academy. Four of his paintings are in the White House Collect
Theodore Wores
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1859
Theodore Wores born at San Francisco.
1939
Theodore Wores died at San Francisco.
Collections
His most famous work is The Lei Maker, which is on permanent display at the Honolulu Museum of Art. The Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, Massachusetts), the Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, California), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC), and the White House (Washington, DC), are among the public collections that also hold works by Wores.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Recognition and collections
Work by Theodore Wores is
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Illustration
5,224 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Theodor SchloepkeIllustrator
- Theodore Blake WirgmanIllustrator
- Theodore UshevIllustrator
- Theodore Van SoelenIllustrator
- Théophile SchulerIllustrator
- Thies LuijtIllustrator
- Thomas Bangs ThorpeIllustrator
- Thomas Bolton Gilchrist Septimus DalzielIllustrator
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Theodore Wores?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.