View of the Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Grafton Tyler Brown - 1890 - 76.9 x 51.2 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum View of the Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Grafton Tyler Brown - 1890 - 76.9 x 51.2 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum

View of the Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Oil on canvas • 76.9 x 51.2 cm

  • Grafton Tyler Brown - February 22, 1841 - March 2, 1918 Grafton Tyler Brown

    1890

Grafton Tyler Brown was the first known artist of African descent to build a professional career in the Pacific Northwest. His landscapes, both expansive and intimate, offer a singular view of the American frontier.

Born in Pennsylvania, Brown moved at the age of 17 to San Francisco, where he established a successful commercial lithography business before selling it to focus on landscape painting. His career took him through Oregon and British Columbia, and later to Wyoming, where he spent six years working in Yellowstone National Park. There, he portrayed the dramatic terrain and vast vistas with confidence and precision. Established in 1872, Yellowstone was a favorite subject of his, and he completed more than two dozen known paintings of its majestic, at times enigmatic, terrain between 1886 and 1891. 

Beautiful, isn't it?

P.S. Check out our Landscapes 50 Postcards Set for more views like this one!  :) 

P.P.S. Grafton Tyler Brown was one of the painters that helped draw public support for preserving American nature. Learn more about artists painting US National Parks!