The Collection of John H. Garzoli
Lot 19
Thomas Hill(1829-1908)Yosemite Valley from Inspiration Point 43 x 53 1/2in overall: 58 x 69 1/4in
19 November 2018, 18:00 PST
Los Angeles and San FranciscoSold for US$336,500 inc. premium
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Aaron Bastian
Director
Kathy Wong
Director, US Business Development, Fine Art
Thomas Hill (1829-1908)
Yosemite Valley from Inspiration Point
signed and dated 'T. Hill 1888' (lower right)
oil on canvas
43 x 53 1/2in
overall: 58 x 69 1/4in
Painted in 1888
signed and dated 'T. Hill 1888' (lower right)
oil on canvas
43 x 53 1/2in
overall: 58 x 69 1/4in
Painted in 1888
Footnotes
Provenance
Hammer Galleries, New York City, New York.
Sale, Christie's, New York, Important American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture, May 26, 1999, lot 117 [as 'Gates of Yosemite'].
In 1861, Thomas Hill traveled West to San Francisco after years of painting in the mountains of New England. He brought with him the Hudson River School tradition of painting highly detailed compositions in praise of nature and its immenseness. He initially set up shop as a portrait and animal painter to pay the bills. In 1865 he made his first trip to Yosemite accompanied by fellow artists William Keith and Virgil Williams and with the photographer Carleton Watkins.
Yosemite must have made quite an impression on the artist, for soon thereafter Hill built a studio in the valley from which he painted for several subsequent summers. He painted numerous works of the area, from small sketches to large detailed and complicated extensive landscapes. His majestic scenes of the valley, especially those as seen from Inspiration Point were soon exhibited in New York, Boston and Chicago. One of the Yosemite scenes that Hill exhibited was described by the Boston Evening Transcript on November 18, 1871, as "a success and the grandest one Mr. Hill has achieved." Further praise was bestowed upon the painting when it was shown at the Palette Club in New York. The critic for Watson's Art Journal declared: 'If it be true that Art, like Christianity and Civilization, has for its mission to bring us back to Nature and so to God,--then indeed is Thomas Hill...the apostle of Truth, in whose capacious brain the majestic forms and subtle effects of Nature have come to rest; and in this [Yosemite scene] he has given us the incarnation of his ideas, with all the power freshness and grandeur of nature.'
Bringing these amazing scenes to a national audience brought Hill fame and fortune. Soon after, his paintings were selling upwards of $10,000, as a visit to Hill's studio became a popular tourist destination in the valley by the 1880's. Along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran and William Keith amongst others, these depictions of America and the wonders to be found in far off wild locations were a part of the catalyst for Western expansion in the second half of the 19th Century. They have become synonymous with early California painting and its rich history.
