{{short description|American painter and art historian}} {{Infobox person | name = Erle Loran | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = October 2, 1905 | birth_place = Minneapolis, Minnesota | death_date = May 13, 1999 | death_place = Berkeley, California, U.S. | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | education = University of Minnesota<br/>Minneapolis College of Art and Design | employer = | occupation = Painter, art historian | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = Ruth Schorer | children = | parents = | relatives = Suki Schorer (stepdaughter) }} '''Erle Loran''' (October 2, 1905 – May 13, 1999) was an American painter and art historian. He was a professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1937 to 1981, and the author of a book about French painter Paul Cézanne. His own paintings are held in museums in California and New York.
==Life== Loran was born on October 2, 1905, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.<ref name="calisphereerleloran">{{cite web |title=Erle Loran, Art Practice: Berkeley |url=http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb267nb0r3&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00034&toc.depth=1&toc.id= |website=Calisphere | date=1999 |publisher=University of California |accessdate=April 24, 2019}}</ref> He attended the University of Minnesota and graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1926.<ref name="calisphereerleloran"/><ref name="archivespapers">{{cite web |title=Erle Loran papers, 1912-1999 |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/erle-loran-papers-9167 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian |accessdate=April 24, 2019}}</ref> In 1926, he was awarded the Chaloner Foundation Scholarship to study in Europe for the next four years.<ref name="archivespapers"/><ref name="minneapolisstar"/> He studied the artwork of French painter Paul Cézanne, and he lived in Cézanne's studio in Aix-en-Provence.<ref name="calisphereerleloran"/><ref name="sfchronicleobit">{{cite news |title=Erle Loran |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Erle-Loran-2929218.php |accessdate=April 24, 2019 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=May 24, 1999}}</ref>
Loran returned to Minnesota due to tuberculosis,<ref name="sfchronicleobit"/> and he became a painter in his own right. He painted landscapes and portraits, and he won the Grand Sweepstakes Prize at the 1934 Minnesota State Fair.<ref name="minneapolisstar">{{cite news |title=State Fair Art Award Is Given To Erle Loran. Minneapolis Artist Takes Grand Sweepstakes Prize. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/187053628/?terms=%22Erle%2BLoran%22 |accessdate=April 24, 2019 |work=The Minneapolis Star |date=August 29, 1934|page=2|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Loran was also an arts educator. He was a professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1937 to 1981.<ref name="archivespapers"/> Loran was a leader of the "Berkeley School," a group of his colleagues who, following Cezanne, "placed greater emphasis on linear and textural qualities, flat planes of color, and shallow “picture box” treatment of space."<ref name="calisphereerleloran" /> He authored ''Cézanne's Composition'',<ref name="calisphereerleloran" /> a 1943 book in which he compared Cézanne's paintings to what he saw in Provence.<ref name="manghani107">{{cite book |last1=Manghani |first1=Sunil |title=Image Studies: Theory and Practice |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=9780415573399 |pages=107–109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BJH40_pFxg4C&dq=Erle+Loran+cezanne&pg=PA107}}</ref> At his retirement, Loran was awarded the University Citation for his contributions.<ref name="calisphereerleloran" /> His students included Sam Francis, Ynez Johnston, Jay DeFeo, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, and Robert Colescott.<ref name="calisphereerleloran" /> Loran was also a collector of Mexican and African art from the Pre-Columbian era.<ref name="sfchronicleobit"/><ref name="frickcollectionloran">{{cite web |title=Loran, Erle, 1905-1999 |url=http://research.frick.org/directoryweb/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=7643 |website=The Frick Collection |accessdate=April 24, 2019}}</ref>
In 1940, Loran was one of 20 artists who provided prints for the San Francisco Chronicle's efforts to provide original works of art by Western artists to the public. They sold for $2 each.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lienau |first=Daniel |date=Feb 21, 2022 |title=Print of the Day! The Annex Galleries |url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/print-day-mon-feb-21-2022-erle-loran-1905-1999-san-francisco-lienau?trk=pulse-article_more-articles_related-content-card |access-date=Aug 8, 2023 |website=Linked In}}</ref> His "San Francisco Bay," a Cezanne-like rendering that includes a freighter on the water and Alcatraz in the background, is included in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,<ref name="sfmomaerleloran" /> the National Gallery of Art,<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Gallery of Art |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.146178.html |access-date=Aug 8, 2023}}</ref> and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Philadelphia Museum of Art |url=https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/348537 |access-date=Aug 8, 2023}}</ref>
Loran married Clyta Sisson on May 8, 1937. Clyta died of cancer in March 1982. Loran later married Ruth Schorer,<ref name="sfchronicleobit"/> whose first husband was art critic Mark Schorer and daughter was ballet dancer Suki Schorer.<ref name="sfchroniclewifesobit">{{cite news |title=Ruth Schorer |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=ruth-schorer&pid=146707915 |accessdate=April 24, 2019 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=November 20, 2010}}</ref> Loran died on May 13, 1999, in Berkeley, California, at 93.<ref name="calisphereerleloran"/><ref name="sfchronicleobit"/> His work is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,<ref name="sfmomaerleloran">{{cite web |title=Erle Loran |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Erle_Loran/ |website=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |accessdate=April 24, 2019}}</ref> the Oakland Museum of California,<ref name="oaklandmuseumerleloran">{{cite web |title=Erle Loran |url=http://collections.museumca.org/?q=category/made/erle-loran |website=Oakland Museum of California |accessdate=April 24, 2019}}</ref> and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.<ref name="themeterleloran">{{cite web |title=Erle Loran |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Erle%20Loran&perPage=20&sortBy=Relevance&offset=0&pageSize=0 |website=The Met |accessdate=April 24, 2019}}</ref> His art collection was acquired by the de Young Museum in 2008.<ref name="frickcollectionloran"/> His widow died in 2010.<ref name="sfchroniclewifesobit"/>
==Selected works== *{{cite book |last1=Loran |first1=Erle |title=Cézanne's Composition: Analysis of His Form, with Diagrams and Photos of his Motifs |date=1943 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, California|oclc=614357650}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Loran, Erle}} Category:1905 births Category:1999 deaths Category:University of Minnesota alumni Category:American expatriates in France Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Category:Painters from Minnesota Category:Painters from California Category:American male painters Category:20th-century American painters Category:American landscape painters Category:American portrait painters Category:American art historians Category:Historians from Minnesota Category:Historians from California Category:20th-century American male artists Category:Artists from Berkeley, California Category:20th-century American historians Category:20th-century American art collectors