This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, William Foster became a noted figure painter and illustrator, living the last twenty-one years of his career in Los Angeles, California.
At age 12, he moved with his family to Colorado, but in 1898, he returned to Cincinnati and enrolled at the Art Academy where he studied with Joseph Henry Sharp and Frank Duveneck. His early ambition was to be a violinist, but he saw a painting by Albert Ceck Wenzell, which refocused him to fine art.
In 1902, he went to New York City where he painted scenery for theaters, auditoriums, and large department stores. He also studied at the New York School with Robert Henri and William Merritt Chase, and from 1903 to 1931, he worked as an illustrator and with a brief teaching stint in 1919 at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1903, he sold his first illustration, a depiction of high society, to "Life" magazine, and the style was very similar to Wenzell. From that time, he worked for most of the major magazines including "Collier's", "The Saturday Evening Post", and "Harper's Monthly".
In 1926, he won the National Academy of Design's Clark Prize for the best figure composition painted in the United States by a non-academician. The following year, he was voted an Associate Member based on his recognition for a figure work titled "The Girl in Brown."
During World War I, he operated his own ambulance in France as a memb er of the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps. Returning to the U.S., he resumed his illustration work and moved to Chicago, where he also taught at the Art Institute.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1932 and devoted his energy to painting, exhibiting, and teaching. He taught at the Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles as well as giving private classes in his studio. He also worked on a mural project at the Hearst estate in Wyntoon, California and was an active member of the California Art Club.
Source:
Walt Reed, "The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000"
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
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The following is from Dorothy Fuhrmann, Los Angeles City College Library, Los Angeles, California:
Our school has a painting by him, so we were researching him.
From "Who Was Who in America" vol. E
Foster, William Frederick, artist; b. Cin., Aug13, 1882; s. William Bolliver and Emma (Koch) F.; art. edn., Cin Art Acad., 1898-1900, Art Students' League, NY, 1901-03, Chase's Sch., NYC., 1903-05; Julian Acad., Paris, 1912-14; m. Mary Bramhall, 1909; 1 dau., Lonna Averill; m. 2nd, audrey Marye, 1920. Illustrator for Life, 1905-10, later illustrator for Saturday Evening Post, Harper's Cosmopolitan, Scribner's, Liberty, Pierre La Fitte Publs. (Paris, Washington and London). etc.; now portrait painter. Instr. Art Inst. of Chgo., 1919-20. Served as ambulance driver, France, 1916-1918. Awarded Clarke prize., Nat. Acad. Design, 1926, auction prize, 1927 A.N.A., 1926; mem. Soc. Ind. Allied Artists, Salmagundi Club., Republican. Address 54 W. 74th St., NYC., Died 1953.
Most of this is small, or in your bio already, but I thought the ambulance driver, France, 1916-1918, was interesting.
We are a community college started in 1929 on the former site of UCLA, then Cal, Southern Branch. I'm not sure how or when the painting came to be on campus, if, for instance, he had a connection to the campus. It was one that had been here a long time and was "discovered" recently.
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William Foster is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
The California Art Club
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