Life & Work

Undated photo of a young Robert Gates. (Smithsonian Archives of American Art)

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt describes a visit to a show of oil paintings and watercolors, where Robert Gates' watercolors were included.

A letter from First Lady Roosevelt's office, inviting Mrs. and Mr. Robert Gates to attend a lecture on Treasury Art Projects at the White House in February 1938.

Robert Franklin Gates was born in Detroit, Michigan on October 6, 1906. He first studied art at the Detroit School of Arts and Crafts. He then attended the Art Students League in New York City from 1929 to 1930. From 1930 to 1932, he studied under C. Law Watkins at the Phillips Gallery Art School in Washington, DC. Gates served as an instructor at the Studio House in Washington, DC between 1934 and 1938. His work, particularly his watercolors, were displayed in various shows at the Phillips Gallery during this period.  

Between 1937 and 1942, Gates also served as an instructor at the University of Florida, Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, the Washington County Museum of Art in Hagerstown, Maryland, and the Phillips Gallery Art School in Washington, DC. In December 1942, the US Navy wrote to Gates asking him to fill a position as a Special Assistant to the Head of the Model Map Making Project, under the Bureau of Aeronautics. As a civilian technician, Gates chiefly worked on photo surface models, large topographical maps with structures, waterways, roads, etc, mounted on rubber backing. Navy strategists used the models to plan troop movements.

After the war, Gates studied under Bill Calfee at American University in Washington, DC. He joined the faculty there in 1946. In 1975, American University hosted the Robert Gates Gala to celebrate 40 years of Gates' career as an artist and instructor in Washington, DC. 

Gates was well-known for his watercolors, which often depicted natural landscapes, rural scenes, and flowers. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a fan of Gates' watercolors of West Virginia landscapes and invited him to the White House at least two times during her residency there.

His work is included in permanent collections at American University, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, the Phillips Collection, and the Lewisshon Collection. The Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington, DC also hold a collection of his personal papers and photos.

Robert Gates died on March 11, 1982 in Alexandria, Virginia.