Justin Faivre arrived in San Francisco in his late twenties during the Great Depression. He was born in Matthews, Indiana, grew up in Portland where he studied with Howard Ellis, and spent the first few years as a Californian in Los Angeles before making the Bay Area his home.
In 1934, he began exhibiting his oils and watercolors at the Oakland Art Gallery which later to become the Oakland Museum. His first studio was in Oakland and then he settled in Alameda. Faivre's work was greatly influenced by the Society of Six, a group of six Oakland painters influenced by the French Fauvists. The six included Selden Connor Gile, August F. Gay, Maurice Logan, Bernard Von Eichman, William H. Clapp, and Louis Siegriest.
They were known for using textural effects, thick impasto, and rich colors, showing the influence of Paul Cezanne and and Henri Matisse. His subjects included still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and marine scenes. He held memberships in the Society of Western Artists and the Alameda Art Association. Sadly, while in his later years, his shed containing many of his works was burgularized and he died penniless.
