Dudley Saltonstall Carpenter

Dudley Saltonstall Carpenter (February 26, 1870—May 18, 1955) was an American portrait artist.

Dudley Saltonstall Carpenter was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 26, 1870, to Gilbert Saltonstall Carpenter (1836–1904) and Elizabeth Thacher Balch Carpenter (1837–1914). He had two siblings—Laura Balch Carpenter (1868–1959) and Edward Laramie Carpenter (1873–1932).

His military family moved a lot during his childhood and at various times, they lived in Fort Laramie, Wyoming; Fort Hartsuff, Nebraska; Fort Douglas, Utah; and Fort Vancouver, Washington.

Dudley, instead, was interested in art and enrolled in the Art Students League in New York. In 1892, he went to Paris, France, to continue his art education at the Académie Julian. While living in Paris, in 1909, he met Margaret Stafford Van Wagenen, a protégée of Anne Evans, a noted patron of the arts in Denver, Colorado. Dudley and Margaret fell in love and married in January 1910.

In 1917, Dudley exhibited a drawing at the Montclair Museum in New Jersey. The reviewer wrote, "Perhaps none has attracted more attention than Dudley S. Carpenter's An Afternoon Stroll. It is a portrait of a mother and her two sons. Admirably drawn and beautiful in composition and color, the handling of the figures becomes of interest with the subject. And the Subject is fascinating. One cannot help wondering what life has in store for two such beautiful boys."

In 1921, Dudley opened a studio on East De la Guerra Street in Santa Barbara. He painted portraits of the Carringtons, influential cultural advocates, and Louise Murphy Vhay, who had designed and owned El Arbolado.

In 1924, Dudley was one of 16 artists who met at the new El Paseo de la Guerra, the complex built by Bernhard and Irene Hoffmann, who were great supporters of renovating Santa Barbara's architecture into a Spanish style. In 1926, he created ceiling murals depicting stories of St. Francis for the anteroom of the El Paseo Restaurant.

In 1929/30, Dudley taught at the School of the Arts where he was a mentor to Channing Peake and Campbell Grant.

As the demand for his art dwindled during the Great Depression, Dudley took up sculpture. He sculpted Hollister and Peake family members, staying at their ranches for weeks at a time.

Throughout the 1940s, he continued to mentor new artists in town. In 1948, he had an exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, displaying a variety of still-life arrangements, landscapes, and figure compositions.

Dudley married Margaret Stafford Van Wagenen (1881–1920) in January 1910. They had two sons—Gilbert (born 1912) and Theodore (born 1914). In 1920, the family relocated to Santa Barbara, California,

Dudley died in Santa Barbara, California, on May 18, 1955, at age 85.