Artists

Zarh Pritchard

American, 1866-1956

Born in Madras, India on March 26, 1866. At age ten Pritchard was sent to school in Scotland. He began sketching underwater subjects there at an early age while playing in the Firth of Forth. After  designing a gown for Sarah Bernhardt with an underwater theme, he began selling his works. After a period in Tahiti, he arrived in San Francisco in 1906 attempting to sell his paintings.  Having lost 50 paintings in the earthquake and fire, he then lived in Pasadena for the next six years. Pritchard went by the name Walter until 1909 and then changed his first name to Zarh. In 1913 he built a home in San Diego County but traveled and exhibited extensively (New York, Japan, Paris, Brazil, London). Leaving California in 1949, he moved to Austin, TX where he hoped to teach art at the University. Due to his age he was unable and died there penniless on Aug. 29, 1956.

Exh: Paul Elder Gallery (SF), 1906; American Museum of Natural History, 1916; Galeries Georges Petit (Paris), 1921; Palace Hotel (Rio de Janeiro), 1922; Nicholson Gallery (Pasadena), 1926. In: Musée Oceanographique (Monaco); Scripps Inst. (La Jolla); Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Edan Hughes, author of the book "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
SCA; Take Me Under the Sea by Thomas Burgess.