Created by
Brown, Grafton Tyler, American, 1841 - 1918
Date
1882
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
H x W (unframed): 16 1/8 × 26 × 1 in. (41 × 66 × 2.5 cm)
H x W x D (frame): 23 9/16 × 33 3/8 × 2 3/4 in. (59.8 × 84.7 × 7 cm)
Caption
Prior to becoming a painter, Grafton Tyler Brown was a lithographer, cartographer, draftsman, and business owner of print firm G. T. Brown & Co. in San Francisco. In 1879 Brown sold his business and in 1882 moved from the Bay Area to Victoria, British Columbia, where he joined a geological survey party.
Brown believed that the landscape of the western Canadian province could "challenge the world for magnificent and picturesque scenery." View of Lake Okanagan was part of a series of watercolor and oil paintings drawn from this experience. Positively received, Brown’s paintings garnered the following commentary in The Daily British Colonist: "the exquisite tints of autumn on the foliage … give the landscapes a rich warm coloring that must be seen to be appreciated."
Description
This is an oil painting of a landscape showing a lake in a valley. Surrounded by pine trees, rolling hills, and mountains, the lake stretches from the lower left corner of the scene to its disappearing point slightly right of the center scene. To the right of the lake shore are fields, crossed by a wooden fence, along which are two haystacks. There are clusters of pine trees in the foreground and at intervals along the lake shore. More trees and wooded hills are visible in the distance. The painting is signed by the artist in the lower left corner "G.T. Brown."
Place depicted
British Columbia, Canada, North and Central America
Classification
Visual Arts
Type
oil paintings
Topic
Art
Nature
Rural life
Credit Line
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Curtis E. Ransom in memory of Julia Turner Ransom
Object number
2012.161ab
Restrictions & Rights
Public domain
Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5f30a8d61-d697-42d1-b011-fcf707b373c4

Cataloging is an ongoing process and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. If you have more information about this object, please contact us at NMAAHCDigiTeam@si.edu

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