George Rupert Avery, (1887-1965) UK/ US Watercolor, pencil and ink illustration; 'Golden Bear', 1933. Signed and dated lower left. 15" x 12". Los Angeles based commercial artist. Mr. Avery, who retired last year from commercial work and magazine work with the West Coast's largest photoengraving and electro-typing firm, Schaefer-Shapher, [sic. Shepherd] Inc., of Los Angeles, has since last June had his own studio on Hwy 1 on Happy Hill. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1911-13 and spent many years as an artist on the East Coast. He was early attracted to etching as an art form by the strength and weight of the works of Anders Zorn of Sweden and by personal talks with the great etcher Joseph Pennell. "In my opinion the attraction an etching has is its power to suggest," Avery said. "˜To each individual who looks upon these ‘creations in lines it raises a different emotion" In todays complicated hurrying world, etchers are not common, as the painstaking method of producing a proof and of making the plate from which the etchings are produced are substantially the same as they were in the days of Durer and Rembrandt, requiring considerable patience on the part of the etcher. Although his vocation has been copper, Mr. Avery also has the avocation of painting with casein paints, several examples of which are also hung in the exhibit, now on display at Waltman’s,” per port. and “Etchings on Display at Waltman’s,” Cambrian, July 2, 1959, p. 2. Biography from the Archives of askART Born in England on Oct. 25, 1887. While a resident of Los Angeles, Avery worked for 50 years as a photo engraver for Metropolitan Photo Engravers. He died in Los Angeles on Oct. 12, 1965.