William S. Rice

Rice studied at The University of the Arts. The recorded working language is English. Employment is recorded with California College of the Arts. Work by William S. Rice is recorded in the collections of Smithsonian American Art Museum and Print Collection.

• Name — William Seltzer Rice • Born — June 23, 1873 • Birthplace — Manheim, Pennsylvania • Place of death — Oakland, California • Resting Place — Manheim, Pennsylvania • Education — Drexel University, University of the Arts • Alma Mater — California College of the Arts • Years Active — 1910–1950s • Movement — Arts and Crafts Movement • Spouse — Susan Steel • Known for — Woodblock prints • Children — 3

Born and raised in Manheim in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Rice grew up with his parents in his grandparents' home on Market Square that had been occupied by his family for four generations. His parents were John Rice and Sara Seltzer Rice. His grandfather, Samuel Rice, operated a carriage painting business in a shop at the back of the property. Interested in painting from a young age, William Rice set up a small studio in the corner of his grandfather's shop. He took occasional lessons from itinerant painters. After completing high school, Rice began teaching drawing, saving his money to attend art school in Philadelphia, where he lived with a cousin. He won an art school scholarship, and also got a job with the Philadelphia Times as a staff artist. He began studies in 1893 at the newly founded Drexel Institute, where Howard Pyle was among his teachers. Rice also attended classes at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, now known as the University of the Arts. There, he began a friendship with Frederick Meyer, a German immigrant who later was hired as art supervisor for the Stockton public schools.

He began freelance writing and illustrating for Sunset Magazine. In 1913, Rice studied design with Ralph Johonnot, an associate of Arthur Wesley Dow, who was an early advocate of color block printing in the United States. Rice toured Europe in the summer of 1913, visiting Chartres, Rothenberg and Venice. In 1915, Rice married Susan Steel, and they honeymooned at Lake Tahoe, California. That same year, the Panama–Pacific International Exposition took place in San Francisco, and he was impressed by the Japanese woodblock prints he saw there. He resolved to become a woodblock print artist. Instead of following the traditional Japanese team method, where an artist did an original painting, who then turned it over to a team of wood carvers and printers, he decided to take control of the entire creative process himself. In 1918, Rice had his first major exhibition of wood and linoleum block prints at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, which was designed by Bernard Maybeck for the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Gump's in San Francisco was one of his leading dealers. His work was displayed in the printmaker's exhibition at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Rice's artistic collaborators and influences included Pedro de Lemos, Elizabeth Norton, Roi Partridge, Gustave Baumann, Lorenzo P. Latimer, Norma Bassett Hall and the sisters Mary & Frances Gearhart. Rice's work was featured in a one-man show at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, California in 1959.

In 1978–1979, the Smithsonian American Art Museum held an exhibition called American Color Woodcuts: The Years of Transition, that featured the works of 40 artists including Rice. In 2015 and 2016, "The Nature of William S. Rice: Arts and Crafts Painter and Printmaker" exhibition was released and travelled to the Crocker Art Museum and Pasadena Museum of California Art.

This is a list of select art exhibitions of Rice. • 1911 – Exhibition of California Artists, Hillside Club, Berkeley, California • 1918 – Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California • 1939 – World's Fair, New York City, New York • 1978-1979 – American Color Woodcuts: The Years of Transition, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. • 2015 – The Nature of William S. Rice: Arts and Crafts Painter and Printmaker, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California • 2015-2016 – The Nature of William S. Rice: Arts and Crafts Painter and Printmaker, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, California

Rice's works are in many public art collections including; California College of the Arts, National Museum of American Art, Boston Public Library, New York Public Library, California State Library, Library of Congress, Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, Elvehjem Museum, Oakland Museum of California, Two Red Roses Foundation, Fitzwilliam Museum, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, Saint Mary's College of California Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.