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Winter in Yosemite Valley Block Print by Julian Rix [177780]

Currency:USD Category:Art / General - Fine Art Prints Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Winter in Yosemite Valley Block Print by Julian Rix [177780]
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Block print taken from an original oil painting by Julian Walbridge Rix (1850-1903). Piece is done on silk and measures 11"x 14" and has some minor staining on outer edges of picture. Rix was born in Vermont to parents who caught gold fever and emigrated to San Francisco. After his mother died, he was sent back east by his father, where he received an education. He returned to San Francisco in 1868 and worked as a sign and house painter. While painting signs, young Julian began painting landscapes which drew the positive attention of local art critics. He may have received encouragement from Albert Bierstadt, whose brother Edward was married to Rix’s aunt. Despite his father’s disapproval of his art career, Julian spent a year painting in New England and New York before returning to San Francisco to study briefly at the School of Design under Virgil Williams and Thomas Hill. He was invited to join the Bohemian Club in 1876 when he was 26 years of age and he became close friends with bohemian artists Amédée Joullin (1862–1917), Jules Tavernier (1844–1899),
Rix did several landscape paintings for Harper's Weekly, to aid their call for conservation of the yet unsettled forests and wild lands on both coasts.
In 1888, he was one of the artists who contributed images for Picturesque California, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Slope, a journal of writings and illustrations edited by naturalist John Muir that represented the natural wonders and spectacular scenery of the thirty-first state. In 1889 Rix took a sketching trip to England, Germany, and the Netherlands. In the 1890s, his work became more influenced by the French Barbizon School and impressionism.
After a visit to San Francisco in 1901 as his health was fading, Rix visited with bohemian friends including William Keith, and soon died in his New York studio after an emergency kidney surgery at age 53. Estranged from his family, Rix left his estate in the hands of his friend and patron John Ryle. Julian Rix was a god parent of Ryle’s daughter and he is buried in the Ryle's family plot.
The Society of California Pioneers collection has three Julian Rix landscape paintings. There are a few other lots in the auction of Rix's works.
Please see photos for more details. California