Born in Brockport, New York on October 14, 1859, Alice Chittenden came to San Francisco, California as a child. her father, a prosperous miner, encouraged her art studies. Beginning a long affiliation with the School of Design, she studied there in 1877 under Virgil Williams and then taught at the school for 43 years. Her marriage to Charles Overton was short-lived and after their divorce she never remarried. Over the years she made several trips to New York, France and Italy to study. Chittenden was an active painter and teacher in San Francisco until her death on October 13, 1944.

Biography courtesy of DeRu's Fine Arts, www.antiquesandfineart.com/derus