Louis Oscar Griffith (1875-1956), "Mission Concepcion, La Purisima, San Antonio, Texas", ed. 13/100, etching and dry point, image size: 8 x 10", frame: 17.5 x 19"

Provenance: The Estate of Joan and Herbert Hahn (San Antonio, Texas)

Texas artist Louis Oscar Griffith was born in 1875 in Greencastle, Indiana. In addition to etching, he was a painter of realistic landscape, portrait and genre, painting with Impressionist-influenced color and broad, relatively loose brushwork. Griffith might not have become an artist, had Frank Reaugh not recognized his potential. Their meeting occurred around 1890. At the time, Reaugh was one of the city's leading artists and Griffith was a young clerk at Dallas' finest hotel, the Grand Windsor. Reaugh had recently moved to Oak Cliff, and was offering art classes at his Dallas studio on Elm Street. He became Griffith's first art teacher and Griffith became his star pupil. Griffith exhibited at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and the Smithsonian Institute in 1945.