Robert Watson (28 February 1923 – 14 December 2004) was an American artist born in

Martinez, California Martinez (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Martínez'') is a city in and the county seat of Contra Costa County, California, United States, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Located on the southern shore of the Carquinez Strai ...

. Watson provided the cover art for

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

's ''

The Martian Chronicles ''The Martian Chronicles'' is a science fiction fix-up novel, published in 1950, by American writer Ray Bradbury that chronicles the exploration and settlement of Mars, the home of indigenous Martians, by Americans leaving a troubled Earth tha ...

'', second edition, printed in 1953. Robert Watson was mostly self-taught artist. In the early 1940s he spent several years in New York City studying work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also studied with Frederick Taubes at the University of Wisconsin before relocating to Berkeley, California. In 1947, he held his first exhibition at

Gump's Gump's is a luxury American home furnishings and home décor retailer, founded in 1861 in San Francisco, California. The company was acquired by the Chachas family in June 2019 and announced that it would be opening a San Francisco location for ...

in San Francisco. The show was favorably reviewed by

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

Art Critic

Alfred Frankenstein Alfred Victor Frankenstein (October 5, 1906 – June 22, 1981) was an art and music critic, author, and professional musician. He was the long-time art and music critic for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' from 1934 to 1965. He was noted for champio ...

. In 1953, he painted the cover art for the 1953 edition of Ray Bradbury's ''The Martian Chronicles''. On May 17, 1997, Watson had a 50-year retrospective show at the Weinstein Gallery in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed that day "Robert Watson Day". Watson died at the age of 81 in

Poway, California Poway () is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. Poway's rural roots influenced its motto "The City in the Country". The city had a population of 48,841 as of the 2020 United States census. Poway is part of San Diego's East ...

after a brief struggle with cancer.

References

External links

Selected works on ArtBrokerage.com
1923 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters People from Martinez, California Artists from California 20th-century American male artists {{US-painter-stub