Next time you visit Altadena library, make a point to look at the magnificent painting on the
south wall, Millard Canyon at Granite Gate, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Guy
Fisher quite a few years ago. Painted by
George Gardner Symons in 1896, the
painting is unusually large, about 6 feet tall, giving the chasm scene in the
San Gabriel Mountains above Altadena a large-as-life perspective.
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| George Gardner Symons' Millard Canyon at Granite Gate belongs to Altadena Library, a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Guy Fisher |
The painting
features intricate geological details hidden in the soft twilight of
sunset. The longer you look, the
more you see. But even standing close up,
you’ll have a hard time making out the minuscule Mt. Lowe railroad car chugging through
Granite Gate in the upper left hand corner of the painting.
Symons, an American
landscape and marine artist, was born in Chicago in 1861. He studied at the
Chicago Art Institute where he became friends with artist William Wendt. Symons
worked in Chicago as a commercial artist and later studied in Paris, Munich and
London. Although his primary studio was in Brooklyn, New York, in 1903 he and
Wendt built a studio in Laguna Beach, becoming active in western art societies.
Like many western
landscape artists of his time, Symons worked entirely out-of-doors, frequently
working in Arizona, painting desert and Grand Canyon views. The grand landscape
painters, including Thomas Ayres, Albert Bierstadt and others traveled widely.
Whether with expeditions, fellow artists or alone, packing-in by animal train
was the usual mode of mountain travel. Although Symons is a lesser-known western
painter (he is better known for his New England snow scenes) he was recognized
in his day. Today his work stands up with surprising strength. Symons died in Hillside, New Jersey in 1930.
Source: Donald Brewer, Pack-In Painters of the American West, November 22 – December 23, 1976, University of Southern California,
1976.
