Henrietta Dunn Mears, American, 1877-1970, Massachusetts, Minnesota, California, Wisconsin. Landscape painting, etching. Similar artists: Birger Sandzen, Granville Seymour Redmond, William Wendt, Dana Bartlett, Selden Connor Gile, Louis Bassi Siegriest, E. Charlton Fortune, Thomas Lorraine Hunt, Guy Rose, Benjamin Chambers Brown, Elmer Wachtel, Fremont Ellis, Maurice Braun.

Untitled (California Wildflowers) is an oil on canvas laid board that is signed lower right. 20 x 24 in image, 25 x 29 frame.

Mears studied at the Art Students League in New York with Charles Hawthorne and Eric Pape. Mears lived in St. Paul, Minnesota for a large portion of her life before settling in California in 1945 for her mature art career. At one point she was also active in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her solo exhibition was held at the Copley Gallery, Boston in 1917. This painting was created later in life as it depicts a landscape of California. Covered with orange and yellow flowers, the hills roll on, meeting shrubs and mountains. The trees in the foreground reach to the top of the composition, standing vertically as if they are curtains that unveil a window to welcome the view beyond. Mears' artworks exhibit an Impressionist flair, sometimes exuding a vibrancy atypical of standard landscape paintings, that can truly be appreciated when viewing in person. No exception is made with this brilliant landscape, which is a strong example of her work and which departs from run-of-the-mill landscape depictions. This scene most likely depicts Mt Baldy.