Nadine Porter Torrance Biography

Nadine Porter Torrance

American

1900-1974

Biography

Nadine Porter Torrance (née Nadine Porter), painter and printmaker, was born to Della May and Columbus Dorris Porter in Oregon on May 19, 1900. Porter moved to California from Payette, Idaho about 1920, and on 10 December 1921 she married Irving W. Moore and the couple lived in Berkeley. After graduating from the University of California Berkeley, she enrolled in the California School of Fine Arts, later known as the San Francisco Art Institute. On 3 July 1935, Porter married fellow artist William Torrance and in the 1930s she worked for the Works Progress Administration Art Education Program. In the 1940 census, Porter Torrance lived in San Francisco and her occupation was listed as a private teacher. She worked as a draftsman for the United States Navy the last twenty years of her life. Nadine Porter Torrance was a member of Society for Sanity in Art and she maintained a home in San Francisco until her death on February 11, 1974.