Obituary for Regina Dorland Robinson

This obituary records the death of Regina Dorland Robinson, a gifted artist from Jacksonville whose life was cut short by her own hand at the age of twenty-five. Though she died young, she produced an impressive body of work.

Robinson was born in Jacksonville on November 5, 1891, the only daughter of wealthy parents. She exhibited a talent for painting and drawing at an early age, and her father, Dr. James W. Robinson, an amateur painter himself, enthusiastically encouraged his daughter’s interest.

At age twelve she took lessons from one of southern Oregon’s best-known artists, Peter Britt, who taught the budding artist how to paint with oils. Over the next thirteen years, she would study art in Berkeley, Portland, Philadelphia, Oakland, and San Francisco, learning the use of watercolors, charcoal, pastels, gouache, and oils.

Robinson’s style was greatly influenced by the French school of impressionism, a nineteenth-century art movement characterized by the use of vibrant colors, short brush strokes, and an emphasis on the play of light. She painted and sketched portraits of her friends and family, scenes of local life in southern Oregon, several self-portraits, and a number of still lifes. Much of her work can be found at the Southern Oregon Historical Society.

It is not known for certain why Robinson took her own life on April 7, 1917. The obituary reproduced here cites her short, unhappy marriage and the fact that she was of “an unusually sensitive and intense disposition and could not throw off disappointments as readily as a less temperamental person.”

Further Reading:
Waldron, Sue. “A Brief Bloom: The Tragically Short Career of Jacksonville Artist Regina Dorland Robinson.” Table Rock Sentinel 12, 1992: 34-44.

Allen, Ginny and Jody Klevit, eds. “Robinson, Regina Dorland.” In Oregon Painters, The First Hundred Years (1859-1959): Index and Biographic Dictionary. Portland, Oreg., 1999.

Written by Cain Allen, Oregon Historical Society, 2003.