Sophie Marston Brannan: Artist Coast to Coast

Sophie Marston Brannan
House Near Stream and Bridge
Early 20th Century
Oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches

Sophie Pike Marston Marston Brannan was an American artist born in Mountain View California in 1877, and grew up in San Francisco. Her father, financier and philanthropist John E. Brannan and wife Carrie Augusta (Sheldon) Brannan, were in a financial position to support and develop Sophie's artistic talent from a very young age. At the age of seven, she began her formal training at the California School of Design and had her first exhibition of pencil sketches at 12. When Brannan was 21 years old, she spent 14 months in Paris studying her craft and upon return, resumed work at the School of Design under Arthur F. Mathews. She began her career in the Bay Area.

Brannan moved to New York about 1910 where she received recognition and won a number of awards. Although a frequent visitor to California, she remained in the East until resettling in the Bay Area after 1940.

Sophie Marston Brannan
New England Homestead
Early 20th Century
Oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches

The artist produced California scenes over a long period of time. Newspaper accounts document countless sketching trips from 1901 to 1918, both local and to northern California counties such as Marin, Monterey, Napa, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. This was during a time in which women had little freedom or autonomy, and travel was a dangerous endeavor. It is not clear as to the company Brannan kept or if she was part of a women's association that allowed travel in groups. It is clear that she produced oils, watercolors, and pastels on these trips that are distinctive for their skies, and attention to trees, particularly oaks.

Sophie Marston Brannan
Landscape
c. 1912
Oil on canvas
25 x 30 inches

Brannan also had an interest in the architecture of historic structures, particularly those in Monterrey and did paintings such as General Sherman's Headquarters, Old Customs House, Rodrigues House, and Adobe in Monterey.

Sophie Marston Brannan
Cloudy Day Landscape
Early 20th Century
Oil on canvas
16 x 20 inches

Brannan was an exhibitor from 1896 until the early 1930s with shows in San Francisco and New York. In California, she participated in group events of the Mechanics Institute, San Francisco Artists Society, Sketch Club, and Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. She also hung artworks at exhibitions including the National Academy of Design in New York, Women's Art Club, New York, Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Sophie Marston Brannan
Landscape with House and Barn
Early 20th Century
Oil on canvas

Brannan apparently did little painting in her later years, working as an artist at the Alameda Air Base during World War II and for many years after, while continuing to reside in The City. Sophie Marston Brannan passed away in San Francisco, California in March of 1960 at the age of  93.

Sources_____________________________________________________________
Women Artists of the American West, Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1998, pp. 27-28
Sullivan Gross, An American Gallery, https://www.sullivangoss.com/artists/sophie-marston-brannan-1877-1960retrieved March 19, 2020
Trotter Galleries, https://www.trottergalleries.com/inventory/artist-bio/?at=SophieMarstonBrannan, Early California and American Fine Art, retrieved March 19, 2020