Judges of the Plains Oil on canvas 30 3/16" x 50 3/16" Signed J. Walker lower left Framed to 39 1/2" x 59 1/2" Judges of the Plains (c.1877) by James Walker Judges of the Plains Considered Walker's masterwork depicts the ranchero powers of the area covering Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The most prominent families are represented: the Sepúlvedas, Verdugos, Picos, del Valles, and Lugos. Francisco Xavier Sepúlveda (1742 - 1788) was a Mexican colonial soldier and patriarch of the prominent Spanish Mexican Sepúlveda family in the early days of Las Californias and Alta California in present-day Southern California. In 1781, Francisco, along with his wife María Candelaria de Redondo and 6 children, accompanied the José de Zúñiga Expedition into upper Las Californias. Sepúlveda's eldest son, Juan José Sepúlveda (1764 -1808), and his fifth son, Francisco Sepúlveda (1775 - 1853), became progenitors of two distinguished branches of the family. Francisco Xavier Sepúlveda died in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles and was buried at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel cemetery on 26 January 1788. José María Verdugo (1751 - 1831) was a soldier from the Presidio of San Diego who was assigned to the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel at the time his land was granted by the Spanish Empire in 1784. Verdugo came to California with his brother, Mariano Verdugo, in the 1769 Rivera expedition. In 1784, Verdugo requested and received a grant from his army commander Governor Pedro Fages to settle and graze his cattle on what became Rancho San Rafael, also known as La Zanja. Corporal Verdugo's grant consisted of eight square leagues (36,402 acres) of land stretching roughly from the Arroyo Seco in present day Pasadena to the Mission San Fernando. In 1798 he retired from the army to become a full-time rancher, and title to his property was established by Spanish Governor Diego de Borica. After a long illness, Verdugo died on 13 April 1831, at Mission San Gabriel, leaving his property to his son Julio Antonio Verdugo and daughter María Catalina Verdugo. He was buried at the cemetery at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, 43 years after Sepúlveda. Pío de Jesús Pico (1801 - 1894) was a first-generation Californio rancher and politician, born in Alta California at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to parents who emigrated from the part of New Spain that is now Mexico. After the death of his father in 1819, Pico settled in San Diego, California. He married María Ignacia Alvarado there on February 24, 1834. His younger brother was General Andrés Pico. Pío Pico was the last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule, serving from 1845 to 1846. He was also elected to one term (1853) on the Los Angeles Common Council. Ygnacio Ramón de Jesus del Valle (1808 - 1880) was born in Jalisco, Mexico. His father, Antonio del Valle, was a soldier in the Spanish army who came to California in 1819 and was mayordomo (administrator and/or foreman) of Mission San Fernando Rey de España. Ygnacio joined the army as a cadet in 1825 at the Presidio of Santa Barbara. In 1828 he was promoted to second lieutenant and transferred to the Presidio of San Diego. In 1832, his commander became involved in a power struggle with the commandant of the Presidio of Monterey, where Antonio served. Ygnacio's side won the conflict on the battlefield, causing a rift between father and son, and they never spoke again. Del Valle was a rancher and landowner in the eastern Santa Clara River Valley, California, United States, as well as an alcalde of Los Angeles. His estate, Rancho Camulos, is now a registered as a National Historic Landmark. José del Carmen Lugo (1813 - c. 1870) was a major 19th century Mexican Californio landowner in Southern California. Lugo was the son of Antonio Maria Lugo, who was the son of original immigrant Francisco Salvador Lugo. Lugo, in a joint venture with his brothers José María and Vicente Lugo and Cousin Diego Sepúlveda, began colonizing the San Bernardino Valley and adjacent Yucaipa Valley. The land covered more than 250,000 acres in the present-day Inland Empire. By 1842, the Mexican governorship of California was about to change. To protect their land, the Lugo family applied for and received the Rancho San Bernardino Mexican land grant of 35,509 acres. In August 1849 he was elected Justice of the Peace of Los Angeles and served until January 1850. Lugo’s fortunes changed for the worse in later years. In 1854, he signed a note at five per cent interest per month, compounded monthly, and mortgaged all of his property including his home in Los Angeles. He lost his house and his land in Los Angeles to cover the note. José del Carmen Lugo died in poverty in 1870. Conservation Report The work has been professionally cleaned to remove heavy layered yellowed varnish. There has been inpainting to repair flaking around the area of the stretcher bars in the areas which would have been covered by the frame as the result of friction with the frame. The largest area is in the upper left-hand corner, and is a tapering area about 6” long, tapering in a wedge shape from 1” to 1/8” wide. James Walker Exhibitions And Catalogues The American West Painters from Catlin to Russell An exhibition and catalogue Los Angeles County Museum Of Art Exhibits 1971, catalogue published 1972 Participating (exhibiting) Museums Los Angeles County Museum Of Art M. H. de Young Memorial Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum “Judges Of The Plains” Oil on canvas 30 3/16” x 50 3/16” Lent by Carl Schaefer Dentzel Northridge, California Plate #112, page 107 Whitney Museum of American Art “The American Frontier” Images and Myths 1973 Title Page “Judges Of The Plains” Published in 1961 Showing a group of 7 rancheros and foreman judging cattle. James Walker “The Judges of the Plains" Page 151 James Walker Carl Schaefer Dentzel Elizabeth Waldo-Dentzel Multicultural Arts Studio Provenance: From the artist to the Ignacio del Valle Family, Rancho Camulos, Fillmore, California, where full size color photographic prints of the original panting hangs today in the Camulos Adobe Museum. Then to the Rubel Family, who purchased the Rancho Camulos, from the del Valle family in 1924. Later purchased from the Rubel family, by Carl Schaefer Denzel through a Los Angeles art broker. Purchased by the current owner from the Dentzel Family in 2012. Carl Schaefer Dentzel (1913-1980) served as director of the Southwest Museum, Highland Park, California from 1956 until his death in 1980, and was integral in the founding of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board in 1962. Privately, Dentzel assembled large and important collections of Western American art and photographs, and Asian and Native American artifacts. James Walker (1818-1889) Born in Northamptonshire, England, Walker came to the United States as a young child around 1824. By the mid-1840s, he was living in Mexico City, where he began to execute genre works based on colonial Mexican heritage. At the onset of the Mexican War in 1846, Walker was trapped behind enemy lines for six weeks, the only American painter present in the city during its siege. Following the Mexican War, Walker established a studio, first in New York and subsequently in Washington, D.C. Bolstered by his connections in the nation's capital, the artist completed a series of Mexican War battle scenes and, in 1857, was commissioned by Captain Montgomery C. Meigs to paint The Battle of Chapultepec , a work measuring over seventeen feet in width, for the United States Capitol. From 1862 through the Civil War, Walker made sketches of Civil War scenes and battles. Walker's commission to create a massive painting of The Battle of Gettysburg … Completed in 1870, Walker's grand canvas captures the dramatic conclusion of the three-day battle (July 1-3, 1863) which marked a turning point in the war's tide. The Battle of Gettysburg embarked on a cross-country tour. On the heels of this considerable success, James Walker moved to San Francisco in the 1880s. There, scenes of cattle drives, cowboys, and the western landscape captured his imagination and occupied his brush. Walker died in Watsonville, California. Walker's works are represented in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Denver Art Museum, Gilcrease Museum, United States Department of the Interior and West Point Museum. Full condition report available online at morphyauctions.com This is not a standard shippable item and will require 3rd party shipping or pickup arrangements to be made.