William Wendt

One of California's best-known landscape painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, William Wendt (1865 - 1946) was called the "Dean of Southern California" artists. His landscapes were especially known for rich greens and browns. In California, Wendt was not a studio painter but worked outside, "en plein air", and explored the unique native landscape, often going into the wilderness. He had a deep reverence for nature, especially the unsettled wilderness, which he regarded as a place for silence and contemplation.