HILL, John Henry (1839-1922).
White Mountains.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed and dated lower left: "J. Henry Hill / 1858."
6 1/2” x 11 1/2” sheet, 16 1/2” x 20 1/2” framed.

John William Hill’s son John Henry Hill (1839-1922) was steeped in an artistic atmosphere and aesthetic. He studied painting with his father and first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1856. Elected an Associate Academician two years later, he exhibited watercolors, aquatints, and etchings there through 1891, and also showed his work regularly at the Brooklyn Art Association from 1865 to 1885. He joined his father as a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art, and embraced the same ideal of truth to nature, as well as devotion to the medium of watercolor. In 1868 and again in 1870, he traveled through Nevada, Utah, and northern California as a staff artist for a government surveying expedition. In addition to publishing An Artist’s Memorial honoring his father in 1888, he promoted his father’s works by reproducing some as etchings and donating others to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. His own works were praised by Ruskin, who told him in a letter of 1881 that he had a “very great art gift.”