VERSO
Label, Hilbert Museum of California Art, Orange, California
Label, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

One of the first post-war essays and illustrations published on Edgar Payne was of this painting Fourth Lake, Big Pine Canyon in the 1980 seminal exhibition Painting and Sculpture in Los Angeles, 1900-1945 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This exhibition was held as part of the bicentennial celebration of the City of Los Angeles and to introduce hitherto unknown areas of art to the public.

Edgar Payne’s famous Eastern High Sierra oil paintings were in the vast majority painted and inspired from his many visits to the North Fork of Big Pine Canyon. Edgar always stayed at the Upper Glacier Lodge, enjoying a regular bed and having his meals prepared for him versus camping rough in the backcountry. The upper lodge commanded a superb view of Fourth Lake and the Palisades Glacier.

Scott A. Shields wrote, “The remoteness and duration of Payne’s excursions into the vastness of the Sierra far exceeded the travels of most Californians. He depicted the highest locales with the clearest water, the most unblemished terrain, and the purest, most ultra crystalline light as if he were recording these settings for posterity.”

EXHIBITED
Painting and Sculpture in Los Angeles, 1900-1945, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, 1980
Out of the West, Hilbert Museum of California Art, Orange, California, 2017

LITERATURE
Nancy Moure, Painting and Sculpture in Los Angeles, 1900-1945, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980, p. 20, illustrated

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