AW755: Ralph Holmes California Hills in the Spring Plein Air Oil on Board

Ralph Holmes California Hills in the Spring Plein Air Oil on Board. Signed "RALPH HOLMES" lower right

Dimensions: Sight: 27 3/4" x 24"; Frame: 35" x 31 1/4"

PROVENANCE:  We purchased this painting along with several other Ralph Holmes paintings from his estate liquidation in the mid 1990's at Butterfield's & Butterfield's Auction (now part of Bonham's). Ralph Holmes was a very prolific painter.

COMMENTS: Ralph Holmes  (American 1876 – 1960). Ralph Holmes was born in La Grange, Illinois.  He  studied at Northwestern University,  the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as in Paris.  Later he served on the faculty of the Art Institute of Chicago and was the Chair of the Department of Painting and Decorating at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh.   He was a mural painter in Pittsburgh and New York, was known as a writer, and after moving to  California he had a long teaching and painting career there.  He taught at the Otis Art Institute from 1923 to 1948 and served as art editor and writer for E.G. Lewis's Illustrated Review.   He was a four-term President of the California Art Club, was president of "Art in National Defense", and a member of the Academy of Western Painters.  For twenty-five years he was also art instructor at the Marlborough School for girls.  He died in San Luis Obispo in 1963.