Esther Anna Hunt

Esther Anna Hunt was born in Grand Island, Nebraska on August 30, 1875. The Hunt family moved to San Diego when Esther was a child and she grew up on a ranch there. Upon moving to San Francisco in 1901, she studied art at the Mary Hopkins Institute. As a means to finance her art studies, she began painting Chinatown scenes which she sent to a dealer in New York who quickly sold them. After studying portraiture with William Merritt Chase in New York City in 1905 and 1906, she continued her studies for six years in Paris. While in Paris, a portrait of her sister hung in the Paris Salon. Returning to California, she maintained a studio in Los Angeles for four years, then spent 1918-1927 in San Francisco. The years 1927-1933 were spent in New York. 1933-1946 were spent back in San Francisco. After a stroke ended her career in 1946, she was taken to the Santa Ana Rest Home in West Orange County where she remained until her death on March 4, 1951. Her watercolors, etchings, oils and sculptures were very popular with the public during her productive years and many have been reproduced commercially for postcards, calendars and prints. Hunt was very fond of the artistically created and individually named "children" she would never have in real life.

Biography courtesy of DeRu's Fine Arts, www.antiquesandfineart.com/derus