Dorr Hodgson Bothwell was an American artist, designer, educator, and world-traveler. A varied artist, Bothwell was considered a part of the Bay Area Surrealist artist scene and has paintings, drawings, collages, and prints in notable museums throughout the world. She was particularly known for her innovative use of serigraphy as a fine art form. Born in San Francisco, California, and later raised in San Diego, California, Bothwell knew from the age of 4 that she wanted to be an artist. As a teenager, she studied dance at the Ratliff School for Dancing. Her art career began at the California School of Fine Arts in 1921 under the tutelage of Gottardo Piazzoni and Rudolph Schaeffer. Bothwell was married to sculptor Donal Hord in 1932 but divorced shortly after likely due to her independence in traveling and difference of opinion on "domestic duties".
Dorr Bothwell
Dorr Bothwell's bas-relief, in Riverside, California, depicting Juan Bautista de Anza's 1775 colonizing expedition.
Gottardo Fidele Piazzoni was a Swiss-born American landscape painter, muralist and sculptor of Italian heritage, a key member of the school of Northern California artists in the early 1900s.
Portrait of Gottardo in his San Francisco studio, ca. 1925
Silence by Gottardo Fidele Piazzoni, c. 1912, oil on panel, De Young Museum
The Land by Gottardo F. P. Piazzoni, 1932, oil on canvas, five panels, 12 x 6 2/3 ft. each, De Young Museum
The Sea by Gottardo F. P. Piazzoni, 1931, oil on canvas, five panels, 12 x 6 2/3 ft. each, De Young Museum
