65

William Keith

1838-1911

Encampment at Yosemite Valley with Cathedral Rock

Oil on canvas laid to canvas
Signed lower right: W. Keith
18" H x 24" W

  • Notes: William Keith was born in Scotland, in 1838, coincidently the same year as his friend and fellow Scot, John Muir. A pre-arranged meeting of these two men, thousands of miles from Scotland, in Yosemite Valley, occurred in October 1872. In 1888, Keith and Muir traveled from Lake Tahoe to Mount Shasta, creating sketches to be used in "Picturesque California," which Muir wrote and edited. By this time, William Keith was in a transitioning period of styles and to some extent, painting under the reinvigorating spell of his friend and venerable Barbizon painter, George Inness.

    A 1930's article in the "Art Digest" memorialized this friendship:

    "In 1891, three years before his death, George Inness was in California, painting and passing many pleasant hours with his friend William Keith. The two were American's leading Barbizon painters, for so time has ranked them." There is some irony in the rumor that George Inness was said to claim Yosemite to be "unpaintable." To be sure, Virgil William, Thomas Hill, William Keith, and Albert Bierstadt would prove that rumor false.

    After William Keith's first meeting with Muir in 1872, in a river encampment along the Merced (not unlike the one depicted here), the two gentlemen remained friends for another three decades. It is said that they were each other's fiercest critics. Nevertheless, they both held a common love and utter fascination for Yosemite Valley is what brought William Keith and John Muir together - and what kept them returning thereafter.
  • Condition: Visual: Overall generally good condition. Occasional areas of fine and stable craquelure, showing primarily in the lighter pigments used in the sky. The canvas has been relined.

    Blacklight: A 6" H x 2" W area of touch-up in the mountain near the center of the work, and other pea-sized or smaller areas of touch-up scattered throughout.

    Frame: 27.25" H x 32.25" W x 4.25" D


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May 7, 2024 12:00 PM PDT
Monrovia, CA, US

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