Mabel Alvarez

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.

The later years of her life were spent in a retirement apartment and then in a nursing home. She died on March 13, 1985, at the age of ninety-three in Los Angeles.