Thomas Hill
(1829-1908)
Stream in a western landscape
Oil on board
Signed lower left: T. Hill
12.25" H x 18.5" W
Provenance: Sold: John Moran Auctioneers, Pasadena, CA, July 1, 1997, Lot 105A

Other Notes: A beach scene is painted on the verso of the board.

Thomas Hill was born in Birmingham, England, and came to the United States as a youth in 1844, following his father to Massachusetts.† In 1853, he moved to Philadelphia, where he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. A year later, he visited the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a region associated with painters of the Hudson River School.† It was during the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 that he departed for California.

Arriving in San Francisco, Hill worked initially as a commercial artist but soon sought to pursue easel painting. In 1863, he hired the renown painter Samuel Marsden Brookes to give him lessons in oil painting.

By 1865, Thomas Hill was sketching throughout the Sierra Nevada, and by that summer was staying in Yosemite Valley. Hill would go on to build a pine-board studio, where he would host visiting artist and friends including Carleton Watkins, Virgil Williams and, William Keith.† After studying in France in 1866 and immersing in the Barbizon manner, his approach became more expressive.

During an 1872† tour of Hill's work in New York, an art critic pitted Albert Bierstadt's "In The Rocky Mountains" against Thomas Hill's magnificent "Canyon of the Sierra," each expansive and breathtaking mountain landscapes, declaring:

"Mr. Bierstadtís imagination is beyond his powers of execution andÖhe generally fails to give a satisfactory and perfect picture through attempting too much.† In this respect, he compares unfavorably with his rival, and we think, superior, Thomas Hill, who possesses a freshness, originality, and power which nothing of Mr. Bierstadtís, that we have seen, can equal."

To be sure, moments such as this helped secure Hill's stature as one of the most accomplished American artists of his day (not to mention ensure his financial success) with clients in San Francisco and beyond.

Visual: Overall good condition. Very fine, stable craquelure showing primarily in the white pigment of the clouds.

Blacklight: A 1" H x 0.5" W area of touch-up in the lower right corner, and other rice-sized or smaller areas of touch-up scattered throughout.

Frame: 18.5" H x 24.75" W x 1.75" D Condition reports are offered as a courtesy and are typically published in Moran's catalogue or can be made available upon request. The absence of a condition report does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of others. Buyers are responsible for determining to their own satisfaction the true nature and condition of any lot prior to bidding. Though buyers are not legally required to inspect lots prior to purchase, failure to do so may constitute a waiver of complaint that an item was not delivered in a condition equal to the existent condition at the auction.