Murals

An article from the Washington Evening Star describing the addition of Gates's mural to the Bethesda, MD post office.

Robert Gates with a print of the mural he completed for the Bethesda, Maryland post office.

Robert Gates won his first Section of Fine Arts commission in 1934, for a series of watercolors for Charles Gardens, South Carolina. His first mural commission was completed in 1939 when he installed "Montgomery County Farm Women's Market" in the Bethesda, Maryland post office. Based on his previous satisfactory work, he was invited to submit designs for a mural to adorn the new Lewisburg, WV post office in July 1939. "Old Time Camp Meeting" was installed in October 1940. The Section invited him to submit another design, this time for a new post office in Oakland, Maryland in November of that year. "Buckwheat Harvest" was installed in February 1942.

Gates was familiar with both West Virginia and Maryland landscapes and geography. Previous to his mural work, he completed watercolors of both areas and spent summers on Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, near Oakland. His murals reflect characteristics of impressionism and watercolor, including degrees of opaque color, and fluid lines, even though he utilized tempera and canvas for his murals and not traditional watercolor materials, like pigments and paper.