"Mt. San Jacinto"
Oil on canvas laid to canvas
Signed and inscribed lower right: F. Grayson Sayer / Indio, Calif; titled verso
28.5" H x 36" W

Provenance: Property from a Private Southern California Estate

Notes: The artist Fred Grayson Sayre arrived in California in 1915 after having a successful career as a pen-and-ink illustrator in Chicago, Illinois as he sought for a place where he could recover from a severe case of diphtheria. Working in Glendale, Palm Springs, and Thermal, Sayre became an artist of some renown in the California art scene within a few years of his arrival in the Golden State. His works were exhibited in San Francisco at the Bohemian Club, and in Los Angeles at the Glendale Chamber of Commerce. In 1923, Sayre co-founded the Painters and Sculptors Club with the renowned artist Joseph Kleitsch and began a term as its President in 1929.

Sayre painted images of the Coachella Valley, such as Mt. San Jacinto, throughout the time he spent working in California. At a talk given in 1926, Sayre remarked of the area:
"There is something in the desert that meets the call of the artist. I have spent four months at a time in the Coachella Valley and it is always different. I sought for years to depict the mountain haze which adds as much to the western picture, as perfume does to the rose. Clear mountains can be painted easily, but painting the haze has been difficult. I feel a message in the vast, lonely spaces and that is what I am struggling to put into the picture."
Sayre died in Glendale in 1938 at the age of fifty-nine.

Visual: Generally good condition. The canvas, as already stated, is laid to canvas. Dust accumulation, grime and craquelure commensurate with age. Stretcher bar creases along all four edges.

Blacklight: Small dots and lines of touch-up scattered throughout, mostly near the edges and often attendant with former frame abrasions.

Frame: 35" H x 43" W x 2.5" D