ARTIST: John Bond Francisco (California, Ohio, 1863 - 1931)
NAME: Portrait of Old Man
YEAR: circa 1888
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: Relined. Restretched. Some scattered small inpaintings mostly along left edge.
SIGHT SIZE: 20 x 16 inches / 50 x 40 cm
FRAME SIZE: 26 x 22 inches / 66 x 55 cm
SIGNATURE: lower left
NOTE: Certified by artist's grandson A. Bond McGaffey
PROVENANCE: The Irvine Museum, CA (exhibited in 1994); De Ru's Fine Arts, Bellflower, CA Estate of DeWitt McCall III
CATEGORY: antique vintage painting
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SKU#: 117125
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BIOGRAPHY:
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he became a California painter of impressionist mountain and desert landscapes with dramatic lighting effects. He was one of the earliest landscape painters to live in Los Angeles.
He studied art and music at Ohio State University and also went to Europe, painting with Fechner in Berlin and Nauen in Munich. In Paris, he studied at the Julian and Colarossi Academies, and his teachers were William Adolphe Bouguereau, Tony Robert-Fleury, and Gustave Courtois. He also painted in Switzerland, Germany, and France, and took violin lessons in Berlin and Paris.
In 1887, he settled in Los Angeles where he married and spent the remainder of his life, combining careers of fine art painting and music. His home and studio at 1401 Albany Street became a popular gathering place for artists and musicians. In 1897, he helped form the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and was its first concert master.
He painted mountain and tree landscapes and glowing desert scenes, often painting with landscapist Elmer Wachtel. He was first in northern Arizona in 1906 as a guest of the Santa Fe Railroad, and one of his Grand Canyon views was used for a travel ad.