Thomas Hill (1829-1908) American School LOS ANGELES AND THE LOS ANGELES RIVER, circa 1887 LOS ANGELES AND THE LOS ANGELES RIVER reflects the beginning of Los Angeles suburbia when the city was growing rapidly and spreading out into the surrounding countryside. The picture was painted in the springtime, with the Los Angeles River running full, swelled by melting snow from the nearby mountains. Central to the painting is Main Street and the Pico House, the opulent Los Angeles hotel which opened in 1870. This panorama of early Los Angeles was painted from the hills near Bunker Hill and Echo Park, in the vicinity of Elysian Park where Dodger Stadium is today. This location is near the intersection of the Hollywood and Pasadena Freeways, and approximately one mile north of Los Angeles City Hall. The picture was commissioned in grisaille for publication in Picturesque California, the 1887 book edited by John Muir. Grisaille is a monochrome painting executed entirely in black and white with mixtures of neutral greys. A grisaille may be painted for its own sake as a decoration, as a model from which an engraver works, or as a painting intended to be reproduced in a black and white publication.
Thomas Hill (1829-1908) American School LOS ANGELES AND THE LOS ANGELES RIVER, circa 1887 14 x 21½ inches / 19¼ x 27 framed Oil on panel, en grisaille Signed lower left: “T. Hill” Provenance: Edward G. Robinson, Beverly Hills, California With Dal’s Antiques, Lawndale, California Private Collection, Palos Verdes Estates, California since circa 1957 Adamson-Duvannes Galleries, Los Angeles, California (until 2000) Private Collection, Orange County, California Illustrated: Muir, John, Picturesque California and the Region West of the Rocky Mountains, from Alaska to Mexico, 1887. Muir, John, West of the Rocky Mountains, Philadelphia: Running Press, 1976, p. 163. Sold - Private Collection, Santa Ana, California

click to request more information