The Graphic Art of Roi Partridge from the Collection of Forrest L. Merrill 

Moradian Gallery

February 7 - June 28, 2026
Curated by Michele Ellis Pracy, FAM Executive Director and Chief Curator

This exhibition of etchings by Roi Partridge is loaned from the Collection of Forrest L. Merrill of Berkeley, California. A master printmaker, George Roy Partridge (October 14, 1888 - January 25, 1984), also known professionally as Roi Partridge, was an American artist and teacher. He was born in Centralia, Washington. In 1909, the budding artist traveled to New York City for one year of art study. When 44 of his etchings were shown at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, he decided to make California his home. After moving to San Francisco in 1917, he began teaching at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1920 and became the first director of the school's art gallery. His marriage to photographer Imogen Cunningham in 1915 ended in divorce in 1934. They had three sons, including photographer Rondal Partridge. Partridge took a leave of absence from Mills College in 1946, continued etching until 1952, and retired in 1954. His last years were spent in Rossmoor in Walnut Creek, California, where he died on January 25, 1984. His work is held in the collections of the Bancroft Library (University of California), the British Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of SanFrancisco, the Frye Art Museum (Seattle, Washington), the Grinnell College Museum of Art, the Honolulu Museum of Art, Mills College, the Monterey Museum of Art (Monterey, California), the New York Public Library, the Oakland Museum, the Portland Art Museum,  the San Diego Museum of Art (San Diego, California), the Seattle Art Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art, among others.

Image: Roi Partridge, Comme Je Suis, 1911 (Self-Portrait), Engraving on zinc from a pencil study, From the collection of Forest Merrill