DOI issue:
No. 129 (November, 1907)
DOI article:Atkins, Henry: William Keith, landscape painter, of California
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28253#0052
William Keith of California
WILLIAM KEITH, LAND-
SCAPE PAINTER, OF
CALIFORNIA.
It sometimes happens that the wanderer in the
foothills of California will find at his feet some
jewel-like fragment, carried by stream or long-
vanished glacier from its matrix in the towering
Sierra and cast upon the verges of the pastoral
country. The geologist will speculate upon the
logic of its presence, may trace it home to its
mountains, or may fail of the clue—but knows,
nevertheless, that though the trail be lost, there is
an integral connection between the iridescent
thing in his hand and the hidden mountain forma-
tion from which it came, though they be separated
by vaguely comprehended intervals of time and
space. And if the wayfarer be merely a lover of
beauty he will at least see in his trouvaille its
delight of blended colour and fire, and, refreshed
by pleasure, take up his road anew.
So the occurrence of an art like that of William
Keith, in a newly-awakened country and a land of
recent art tradition, stirs the analytic sense, and
what notes are here set down may interest even
those of us who, like the traveller of incurious
mind, enjoy the gem alone for its obvious and
enduring charm of form and colour.
Like another modern master workman in romance,
Keith’s memories revive the “ hills of home.” Sixty-
eight years ago he was born in Old Meldrum,
Aberdeenshire, and at twelve years of age his
childhood was transplanted to America. On both
sides of the family are strong old names. His
mother was a Bruce, and in the background of the
paternal line, the ruins of Dunnottar Castle loom
historic, and that Earl Marischal Keith, whose
statue as Field - Marshal of Frederick the Great
stands to-day in Berlin, and in bronze replica,
presented by William the First, at Peterhead.
Mr. Keith’s art apprenticeship was to the careful
toil of the wood-engraver, at that fine modern period
and climax of the art just before the introduction of
the more popular and rapid reproductive processes
“ A CALIFORNIAN LANDSCAPE
36
BY WIL1IA.M KEITH
WILLIAM KEITH, LAND-
SCAPE PAINTER, OF
CALIFORNIA.
It sometimes happens that the wanderer in the
foothills of California will find at his feet some
jewel-like fragment, carried by stream or long-
vanished glacier from its matrix in the towering
Sierra and cast upon the verges of the pastoral
country. The geologist will speculate upon the
logic of its presence, may trace it home to its
mountains, or may fail of the clue—but knows,
nevertheless, that though the trail be lost, there is
an integral connection between the iridescent
thing in his hand and the hidden mountain forma-
tion from which it came, though they be separated
by vaguely comprehended intervals of time and
space. And if the wayfarer be merely a lover of
beauty he will at least see in his trouvaille its
delight of blended colour and fire, and, refreshed
by pleasure, take up his road anew.
So the occurrence of an art like that of William
Keith, in a newly-awakened country and a land of
recent art tradition, stirs the analytic sense, and
what notes are here set down may interest even
those of us who, like the traveller of incurious
mind, enjoy the gem alone for its obvious and
enduring charm of form and colour.
Like another modern master workman in romance,
Keith’s memories revive the “ hills of home.” Sixty-
eight years ago he was born in Old Meldrum,
Aberdeenshire, and at twelve years of age his
childhood was transplanted to America. On both
sides of the family are strong old names. His
mother was a Bruce, and in the background of the
paternal line, the ruins of Dunnottar Castle loom
historic, and that Earl Marischal Keith, whose
statue as Field - Marshal of Frederick the Great
stands to-day in Berlin, and in bronze replica,
presented by William the First, at Peterhead.
Mr. Keith’s art apprenticeship was to the careful
toil of the wood-engraver, at that fine modern period
and climax of the art just before the introduction of
the more popular and rapid reproductive processes
“ A CALIFORNIAN LANDSCAPE
36
BY WIL1IA.M KEITH