Frederick Kress

Born in Pittsburgh, PA on Jan. 7, 1888, the son of artist Carl Victor Kress. Frederick Kress spent his childhood in Pittsburgh and high school years in Independence, MO. His arrival with his family in San Francisco was a few months before the disaster of 1906.

While working with his father as a sign and scenery painter, he studied at the Institute of Art. During his five years at that school, he also studied privately with local artists Maynard Dixon, C. Chapel Judson, and Emil Grebs. In 1912 Kress began making painting excursions into the Big Sur area, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and Marin County when not working in the paint department of Foster & Kleiser (billboards), a position he held for 42 years.

He exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association until 1920 and after that time painted strictly for pleasure and was not known to have exhibited or sold any of his paintings.