Crescent Lake (Yosemite Valley)
Before photography became commonplace, the great landscapist artists such as Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) played key roles in creating indelible images of the unspoiled American West, and in effect were early preservationists. Thomas Hill continued the tradition of Bierstadt and rose to become one of the most prolific artists of his time, dedicating his artistic passion to Yosemite Valley and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Curiously, for someone who so fervently championed the American landscape, he was not native born, but came from Birmingham England. His family immigrated to Massachusetts when he was a teenager. He began formal art training in his early twenties at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and next became acquainted with the artists of the Hudson River School, revered for their romantic and tranquil landscapes.
When Hill first came to Northern California, he opened a studio in San Francisco to paint not landscapes, but portraits. It would be several years later before he would travel to Yosemite Valley and become enraptured with the region, eventually painting over 5,000 views of this National Park. By the early 1880s, Thomas Hill was lauded as the premier painter of Yosemite, and tourists visiting the region purchased his paintings at high prices to secure a souvenir.
The Union League Club Chicago painting is distinguished for illustrating two actual famous hunters, Jim Duncan and Bob Whitman. Gazing at the picturesque vista, they sling rifles causally over their shoulders; mules carry their capture and a dog energetically tags along. The region of Crescent Lake was known as grizzly bear country, but Hill presents a romantic interpretation of the area, replete with a misty haze hovering over the lake. The monumental, sculptural peaks in the distance coupled with the hoary towering trees overwhelm the human scale of Duncan and Whitman, signaling the landscape will endure long after the hunters’ earthly existence.
