Class of Summer 1932
Benjamin Chambers Brown
b. Marion, Arkansas, 1865
d. Pasadena, California, 1942
Mt. Lowe in Winter (or Opalescent Morning, Mt. Lowe, California), 1925
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 inches
Benjamin C. Brown, one of the earliest Impressionists to settle in Southern California, was generous with his time for the GHS students, who visited him often in his studio in Pasadena. Brown considered Mt. Lowe in Winter one of his best snow scenes. In a letter to the school, he wrote that to capture the scene, he ”tramped over trails while it was snowing, got wet and cold, and had to stay up there all night in a tent. I was no sooner in bed, than I got severe cramps in both legs—got up three times to rub them out, and finally gave it up and sat up all night in an arm chair smothered in quilts and blankets. So you see, art has its troubles as well as its joys—but the trouble is hidden and the joy remains—and I hope I have caught some of the beauty of the joyous morning to pass on to others—until time dims the canvas.”
GIFTED: Collecting the Art of California at Gardena High School, 1919-1956 is organized by the GHS Art Collection, Inc, in association with the Gardena High School Student Body and curated by Susan M. Anderson.
