Lot Essay
Trappers in Yosemite Mountains is an excellent example of Thomas Hill's work and may be one of the artist's last pictorial statements of the American West. Thomas Hill, who studied at the Pennsylvannia Academy of the Fine Arts in 1853, worked in New England until his first trip to the West in 1861, the year he settled in San Francisco. Accompained by Virgil Williams and William Keith, Hill made his initial trip to Yosemite in 1862 where his artistic interests remained for the rest of his career.
Living permenantly in San Francisco, Hill painted Yosemite Valley from a studio next door to the Wawana Hotel where he resided in the summers until the late 1890s. During the late 1880s and into the 90s, Hill exhibited widely, won numerous awards and gained critical acclaim until poor health conditions seriously curtailed his artistic production in the mid-1890s.
Despite Hill's opposition to the ensuing trends of Impressionism and Modernism, many of the artist's paintings, including Trappers in Yosemite Valley, reveal an experimentation with suggestive brushwork and atmospheric subtleties. However, this flirtation with Impressionism was simultaneously balanced by retaining the solidity of form and detailed topographical description necessary to achieve an evocative view of a celebrated natural site.
Living permenantly in San Francisco, Hill painted Yosemite Valley from a studio next door to the Wawana Hotel where he resided in the summers until the late 1890s. During the late 1880s and into the 90s, Hill exhibited widely, won numerous awards and gained critical acclaim until poor health conditions seriously curtailed his artistic production in the mid-1890s.
Despite Hill's opposition to the ensuing trends of Impressionism and Modernism, many of the artist's paintings, including Trappers in Yosemite Valley, reveal an experimentation with suggestive brushwork and atmospheric subtleties. However, this flirtation with Impressionism was simultaneously balanced by retaining the solidity of form and detailed topographical description necessary to achieve an evocative view of a celebrated natural site.