Sierra Grandeur: Selections from the Schaefer Collection
July 14, 2001 - October 14, 2001
Henry Joseph Breuer (1860-1932), “From the Lowest Point to the Highest Point in the United States”
Los Olivos, CA – The Wildling Art Museum presented “Sierra Grandeur,” a selection of oil paintings from the Schaeffer Foundation Collection from July 14-October 14, 2001. The exhibition comprised paintings of the Sierra Nevada by California artists active between 1880 and 1950.
The earliest work in the exhibition was “ Bridal Veil Fall,” by Thomas Hill, a painting executed in the Barbizon-influenced style of the 1880’s when Hill maintained a studio in Yosemite Valley. There was also an eight-foot-long panorama depicting the length of the Sierras from the east by Henry Joseph Breuer (1860-1932). This painting, entitled, “From the Lowest Point to the Highest Point in the United States,” was first exhibited in San Francisco in 1919 and was on loan for many years at the Oakland Museum. The exhibition includes paintings by Orrin White, Edgar Payne Carl Henrik Jonnevold, Paul Lauritz, Jones Messiman, and Leland Curtis. The latter, an illustrator from Denver who participated in the U.S. Antarctica Expedition in 1939-40, is represented by three paintings, two of high mountain lakes in the Sierras, and the third depicting a farm in the Owens Valley. Two bronze sculptures of Grizzly Bears by the Montana artist Ace Powell are also on view.
The exhibition continued through October 14, 2001.