Xavier Martínez

American, (1869–1943)
Xavier Timoteo Martínez was a California artist active in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was a well-known bohemian figure in San Francisco, the East Bay, and the Monterey Peninsula and one of the co-founders of two California artists' organizations and an art gallery. He painted in a tonalist style and also produced monotypes, etchings, and silverpoint. Upon arrival in San Francisco in 1893, Martinez enrolled in the California School of Design, also known as the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art or San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI). He graduated in 1897, worked briefly as assistant to the head of the institute, Arthur Frank Mathews, and became a member of the Bohemian Club. In San Francisco, he shared an art studio with Gottardo Piazzoni. Martinez was one of a group of artists invited to create an art gallery at Monterey's Hotel Del Monte in 1907. He began teaching as a substitute drawing teacher in June 1909 at the California School of Arts and Crafts (CSAC) in Berkeley and by August he was appointed a permanent member of the faculty with the title Instructor for Still Life and Landscape Painting in Oil. Martinez continued to teach at the CSAC and moved in 1924 to its new Oakland campus where three years later he was appointed a Professor of Painting.