Standish Backus, Jr. (1910-1989)

Born in Detroit, Michigan to a wealthy family, Standish Backus studied watercolor while an architecture student at Princeton and at the University of Munich. His formal art training was limited to a brief period of study with Eliot O'Hara. 

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In 1935 he moved to Santa Barbara, California, and became active with the California Watercolor Society. During World War II he was a naval combat artist in the Pacific, and in 1955 he participated in Admiral Byrd's expedition to the South Pole. In 1967 he designed the Pacific War Memorial mosaic mural for Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. He was a California Scene painter and member of the American Watercolor Society.

Sources: Artists in California, 1786-1940, Edan Hughes

California Watercolors 1850-1970, Gordon McClelland and Jay Last