Vale do Antílope, Estado da Califórnia, Estados Unidos (Antelope Valley) - Granville Redmond

Vale do Antílope, Estado da Califórnia, Estados Unidos (Antelope Valley) - Granville Redmond
Estado da Califórnia - Estados Unidos
Coleção privada
OST

Granville Redmond is one of only a few California artists, who in spite of challenging life circumstances, worked prolifically in the artistic centers of San Francisco, Monterey, and Los Angeles to great acclaim. In his late twenties, he attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, California, where he first began his formal artistic training. Following graduation, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the California School of Design, the school founded by the San Francisco Art Association. His teachers there included the Tonalist painters Arthur Mathews and Amédée Joullin. In 1893, Redmond first traveled to France to study at the Académie Julian, and over the next four years, he studied in Paris, on the Brittany coast, and Moret near Fontainebleau. He fell in love with the French landscape and was determined to exhibit at the Paris Salon. Had he not received an urgent call to return home from his family, Redmond would have remained there longer. In 1898, Redmond returned to California and settled in Los Angeles, which was the start of his career in the Southland. He continued to exhibit in San Francisco, but soon embraced the Southern California landscape, conceding that its 'scenery excels that of France.' He often painted scenes in and around Laguna Beach, Catalina Island, and San Pedro. By 1905, Redmond was receiving considerable recognition as a leading landscape painter and bold colorist throughout the state.
Granville Redmond was best-regarded then, as he is today, for his verdant wildflower landscapes, and the present work is a prime example depicting a vigorous bloom of poppies, lupine, and mustard. The Antelope Valley is known throughout all of California for its showy desert blooms, and Redmond painted this historic locale on several occasions. The spectacularly sunlit and dappled landscape suited Redmond's technique well, where his meticulous brushwork activates the foreground. As a compositional technique, Redmond favored the rule of thirds, where either the sky or foreground would offer a visual release. In the present work, the looser brushwork in the sky provides a welcome respite to the dazzling display below.