Mabel Alvarez

Mabel Alvarez
Self Portrait, Mabel Alvarez, 1923
Born	(1891-11-28)November 28, 1891 Oahu, Hawaii, United States
Died	March 13, 1985(1985-03-13) (aged 93) Los Angeles
Nationality	American
Education	School for Illustration and Painting
Known for	Painting

Mabel Alvarez (November 28, 1891 – March 13, 1985) was an American painter. Her works, often introspective and spiritual in nature, and her style is considered a contributing factor to the Southern California Modernism and California Impressionism movement.

She was born to a prominent Spanish family who lived on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Her father, Luis F. Alvarez, a physician, was involved with the leprosy research begun by the legendary Father Damien. Her brother, Walter C. Alvarez, would later distinguish himself as a physician and author. Her nephew Luis Alvarez (son of Walter), was a Nobel Prize winner in physics. The family moved to Los Angeles, California when Alvarez was a youth.

Alvarez demonstrated artistic talent at a young age and 1915 enrolled in a Los Angeles art school, where she enjoyed immediate success. She painted a large mural for the Panama-California Exposition San Diego, for which she won a Gold Medal. Alvarez attended William Cahill’s School for Illustration and Painting in Los Angeles and drew a charcoal portrait of a woman in profile used by the School for its catalog cover.

Her first portrait painting was displayed at the Los Angeles Museum (now the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) in 1917, a museum with which she continued a close relationship until her death. As a young woman, she was influenced by the philosophical writings of Will Levington Comfort, who espoused principles of Theosophy and Eastern mysticism.

At an exhibition in 1919 Alvarez won third Black prize for her rendering of a child's head entitled "Carmen." In 1923 she won a prize for best figure-painting for her work Self-Portrait in the spring exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum.