William Wendt (1865-1946)

One of California’s best-known landscape painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, William Wendt was called the “Dean of Southern California” artists. He was the founder and president of the California Art Club, committed to plein air painting, and his landscapes are especially known for their rich greens and browns. His style changed over the years, initially painting in the more accepted American Impressionist manner, but gradually becoming a more blocky, masculinely-rendered form of expression based on an angular interpretation of nature. Indicative of the breadth of his reputation was his election as an Associate of the National Academy of Design in New York.

The present work depicts the Cahuenga Pass near Los Angeles, California. The crisp atmosphere and lush, bucolic scenery are a celebration of the landscape. Representing the arrival of humanity, the self-contained barn and unconnected fence posts pre-date Hopper’s use of solitary architecture to convey meaning and mood. The humble settlement sits at the foot of the majestic Santa Monica Mountains.