R Briston

Early 20th Century Alaska Landscape -- Still Lake with Aurora Borealis

Circa 1900

Sweeping mid-century landscape of a lake and snow-capped mountains by Lillian Josephine Heath (American, 1864-1961). A gigantic, snow-covered mountain dominates the upper portion of the composition, rising above the rest of the landscape. In the shadow of the mountain is a valley lake, filled with snowmelt, with several smaller mountains in between. Signed "Lillian Heath" lower left. Displayed in a giltwood frame. Image, 20.5"H x 28"L. Lillian Heath was one of the Jolly Daubers at the turn of the 19th-century and as a young student, married the senior artist and instructor, Frank Heath in Santa Cruz, California. Artists Frank and Lillian [Heath] by Margaret Koch [transcribed from Santa Cruz Public Library website]….Frank L. Heath courted Lillian Dake Storey during painting trips around Santa Cruz County back in the 1890s. Those were the years when Lillian was riding a saddle horse daily from Santa Cruz to the Powdermill where she taught school. Today [1974] the Powdermill is Paradise Park. Frank's actual proposal of marriage was delivered at Rocky Falls, a beautiful scenic place on Carbonero Creek. There he had constructed a painting platform with a perfect view of the rushing waters, and it was there that he asked Lillian in that formal day and age, to be his bride. Frank was nearly 40 years old at the time, and Lillian was about 32. She had always been interested in art and had talent to a large degree. She took a year's leave of absence from teaching school to travel alone to New York where she visited relatives and stayed to study china painting and the painting of miniatures which is an art in itself. ‘When I returned from New York I enrolled in the art classes of a Santa Cruz artist who was making a name for himself,’ she once said with a smile. The artist was Frank L. Heath, and that was the start of their romance, she told me in 1959. She accepted Frank's proposal at Rocky Falls. At the Heath home on Third Street, Beach Hill, Frank added a wing with a large studio workroom downstairs and several bedrooms upstairs. That was his wedding gift to his bride. ‘The Studio’ had a fireplace and big bay windows that looked out over the town of Santa Cruz and back to the mountains they both loved and painted many times. Lillian painted a set of tiles for the fireplace; they showed darting swallows in the clouds above a stream where song birds perched on tulles and water lilies floated. In 1897 Lillian and Frank were married in the First Methodist Church and they moved into the home on Beach Hill, a house she continued to live in for 64 years. Frank's father, Lucien Heath, was the first Secretary of State of Oregon. He came to Santa Cruz from Oregon in 1866 with his wife, Jane, and sons, Frank and Henry. A daughter, Lina, had died in Michigan where the Heaths lived before crossing the plains to Oregon in 1852. [?] In Santa Cruz Lucien Heath opened one of the early hardware stores on Pacific Avenue in partnership with John Byrne...

Idyllic landscape of a scenic lake view with an evergreen forest and picturesque purple mountains in the background by an unknown artist. Unsigned. Displayed in a period rustic wood ...

Early 20th Century Mountain Lake Landscape Oil Painting by Morisset c.1924 Beautiful landscape with darkening skies over a mountain lake. The reeds at the lakes shore are illuminate...

A wonderful depiction of mountain lake landscape in the country side. For this beautiful depiction of the mountains, we find distinct elements that are unique to the earlier works of Marie Berger. Among other things, Marie Berger's art is notable for its surrealist elements. In Still Life with Figure in a Desert Landscape, for example, she combines the seemingly incongruous images of a foreground still life composition with the almost infinite lines of perspective of the desert environment. The final result is one of provoking imagery and emotion. With joyful colors, this piece is filled with bold brushstrokes and impressive marks. Comes housed in a gold tone wood frame decorated with finely carved botanical elements and it is ready to hang with wire on verso. Art measures 16 x 20 inches Framed measures 19 x 23 inches A native of Fort Worth, Marie Friedman Berger was born March 9, 1913, the daughter of Will and Minnie Cohen Friedman. She was a graduate of Central High School, now R. L. Paschal, and attended Washington University, St. Louis School of Art. Marie married Jack Henry Berger on June 21, 1939, in Dallas; a marriage that lasted nearly 61 years. Mr. Berger died in 2000. Marie was an internationally renowned artist. Her works have been published by the Metropolitan Art Gallery of New York and shown as one of America's only artists in Italian art galleries. She was a recipient of the annual Benedictine Art Award. For many years she worked along side her late husband operating the Fashion Furniture Gallery on Camp Bowie Blvd. Marie Berger was a longtime member of Beth-El Congregation and she was also a full member of the Texas Fine Arts Association (Regional Director) and the Texas Watercolor Society. Among the awards presented to her for her art were the Benedictine Award, New York, and the Texas Fine Arts Jurors Award. She also owned and managed the Marie Berger Gallery, Fort Worth, which promoted the works of many rising American and Mexican artists during the 1950's and 1960's. She studied at Texas Christian University, and then at the St. Louis School of Fine Art and at Washington University, Missouri, which was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis. Her most common media is the use of oil, acrylic, watercolor, etching, lithograph, collagraph. During her successful career, she exhibited internationally at such institutions as the Bateau Lavar Gallery, Rome, the Rassagna permanente d'arte contemporanea, Veterbo, Italy, the Laguna Gloria, Austin, Texas, the Oklahoma Art...