Painter and printmaker, Augusta Rathbone was born in Berkeley, California on November 30, 1897. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in art she left for Paris to continue her studies at the Academie de la Grande Chaumière. She was introduced to printmaking in 1927, and, thereafter, worked primarily in color aquatint combined with line etching.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s her plates were printed professionally in the shop of Monsieur Procabeuf in Paris. After World War II, Rathbone returned to Paris to discover that the shop of her printer had been sold and it was under the new ownership of Monsieur Leblanc. Due to the expense of professional printing and the difficulties she encountered with Monsieur Leblanc, she eventually taught herself to print.
Rathbone’s work has been included in the Spring and Autumn Salons in Paris and exhibitions at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, the Brooklyn Museum, the California Society of Etchers, the California State Library, the de Young Memorial Museum and the Oakland Museum. Her artistic affiliations included memberships in the California Society of Etchers, the San Francisco Women Artists and the National Arts Club. Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, the California Society of Etchers, the de Young Memorial Museum and Rutgers University.
Augusta Rathbone died in Palo Alto, California on March 3, 1980.
