Exhibitions: About Faces, September 3 – October 18, 1987, Civic Art Gallery, Walnut Creek, California

Born in Lawrence, Kansas on March 26, 1880, Theodore Criley began his art studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and continued in Paris at Académie Julian (1913-15).  A businessman, he had hotels in Chicago and Kansas City until the close of WWI.

He then sold his businesses and moved to California in 1917. He built a home in Carmel Highlands where he remained.  There he became a close friend of artists John O’Shea and Wm Ritschel whom he often accompanied on painting forays. 

Criley died on Oct. 5, 1930 in Santa Clara, CA.

His style shows the influence of the French Impressionists. Many of his works are signed with his initials or a monogram of the letters TMC.