Painting California

American Impressionist and Tonalist Artists from The Golden State

Oct 9, 2008 Meg Nola

Painters Guy Rose, Paul de Longpré, Granville Redmond and Percy Gray depicted the varied beauty of California in the early 20th century.

Beyond the famed lure of Gold Rush fortunes, Hollywood dreams and sunny skies, California and its vast natural splendor have inspired many magnificent paintings. From the glory of the Pacific to staggering redwoods, to Franciscan missions and lush floral blooms, California artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries captured pristine scenes from a state which experienced tremendous growth and development since becoming an official part of America -- and which since 1850 has gone from a mere 93,000 people to over 36 million residents.

Guy Rose

Often overshadowed by their East Cost counterparts, American Impressionist and Tonalist painters from California were no less educated or talented. Artist Guy Rose (1867-1925) studied initially in San Francisco then went to Paris’ Académie Julian, won numerous awards and showed his work at the famed Paris Salon of 1890. He also worked at the artists’ colony in Giverny, France, near Claude Monet’s home and studio, then returned to California to paint seascapes, landscapes and regional scenes.

Rose was fond of Monet’s technique of serial views -- depicting the same scene at different times of the day, particularly in his coastline works. Rose was also the Director of the Stickney School of Fine Arts in Pasadena, helping to develop the school’s reputation and recruit excellent teachers. Rose unfortunately suffered a stroke in 1921 which limited his physical abilities, and he eventually passed away in 1925 at the age of 58, bringing an early end to a fine career.

Paul de Longpré

French-born artist Paul de Longpré ’s love of flowers and exquisite paintings of them led him to move to Los Angeles in 1898, intrigued by the area’s warmer temperatures and extended growing season. By 1900, he had bartered a few of his floral portraits to purchase a parcel of land on Hollywood Boulevard, upon which he built a mansion. His three-acre garden within the property housed thousands of rose bushes, and the beauty of his work along with his living botanical studio became a major tourist attraction. In the years following de Longpré ’s death in 1911 the mansion and gardens were torn down, but a street by the original site remains named in his honor.

Granville Redmond

Painter Granville Redmond (1871-1935) is sometimes called an American Impressionist, yet is also often linked with the Tonalist school of artists, imparting a muted yet distinct interplay of light and shadow in his landscapes. A severe case of childhood scarlet fever left Redmond without hearing, and he studied art first at what was formerly called the Berkeley Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, then at the California School of Design in San Francisco. He worked in Paris for several years, then came back to California and painted scenes from Los Angeles, Long Beach, Catalina Island and the northern part of the state, ultimately moving his home base to Menlo Park.

In an interesting side path to his art career, Granville Redmond befriended actor and director Charlie Chaplin around 1917. Besides painting, drawing and sculpture, Redmond had learned pantomime at Berkeley and his skill as a mime worked well with Chaplin’s style. Not only did Chaplin cast Redmond in several silent films throughout the next decade, but he also learned sign language from the artist. Redmond died in 1935, and his paintings offer fascinating contrasts in both light and colorful and dark and shadowy styles.

Percy Gray

Another California painter allied with both American Tonalists and Impressionists is Henry Percy Gray (1869-1952). Born in San Francisco, Gray studied first at the California School of Design and then with artist William Merritt Chase while working as an illustrator for the New York Journal. Gray eventually returned to San Francisco, however, after being sent there by the Journal to cover the devastation of the 1906 earthquake. Back in California, Gray moved away from commercial illustration toward landscape painting, with a particular fondness for cypress and eucalyptus trees. Gray’s Tonalist leanings also made him love coastal thickenings of fog and cloudy weather, and heightened his innate ability to portray what the San Francisco Examiner described as an “eerie charm of romance.” After a long and successful career (and despite a reported allergy to oil paint), Gray died in 1952 while literally standing before his easel.

Legacy

While the works of Rose, de Longpré , Redmond and Gray can be seen at select museums, The Irvine Museum of Art is committed to preserving the California American Impressionist tradition and providing a showcase for its true historical and artistic significance.

Sources

The copyright of the article Painting California in Modern Art History is owned by Meg Nola. Permission to republish Painting California in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Mist over Point Lobos (Guy Rose, 1918)	Poppies and Bees (Paul de Longpre, 1906)	Malibu Coast Spring (Granville Redmond, 1929)
Meadow with Poppies (Percy Gray)