(Marble Series)

Elizabeth Quandt

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Elizabeth Quandt began working on a series of large watercolors that measured near 4 feet by 2-1/2 feet. The subject matter, not unlike that of Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, were simple compositions, arranged pieces of Carrara marble and metal parts. She kept her pallet subdued, allowing the subject to emerge from the background.

Elizabeth Quandt, painter, printmaker, and teacher, was born to Herbert James and Gwendoline Thorne Gunn in Oxfordshire, England on July 13, 1922. Her father, Sir Herbert James Gunn, was a court painter to the royal family. Elizabeth studied at and earned her certificate from Queen Anne’s School in Reading, England.

During the Second World War, Elizabeth met and married American William Mailliard and they moved to San Francisco, California. Mailliard was from an old San Francisco family and went on to become a California State Congressman. Elizabeth attended the San Francisco Art Institute between 1942 and 1944, studying printmaking.

After her marriage to Mailliard failed, Elizabeth met the photographer William (Bill) Quandt, who was an assistant for Ansel Adams, and they soon married. Bill Quandt ran a successful stereo business in Santa Rosa, California. Elizabeth attended the Santa Rosa Junior College as well as the San Francisco Art Institute. She taught at Ursuline High School as well as night classes at the Santa Rosa Junior College between the years 1962 and 1964. After the death of Bill Quandt in 1964, she commuted to San Francisco attending classes once again at the San Francisco Art Institute, eventually earning her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees. She then married artist Roger Barr.

Quandt joined the art department of the Santa Rosa Junior College as a full time faculty member in 1971, where she was an instructor of printmaking and drawing for fourteen years. Passionate about her work, she created a body of drawings, etchings, watercolors, and livres d’artistes. Quandt illustrated Francis Ponge’s Dix poèms, translated by Gerge Gavronsky and printed by Jack Stauffacher in 1983. She also produced two portfolios of etchings, Homage to Boudin: A Suite of Etchings, 1976, and Aries: A Suite of Four Original Etchings, 1978.