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William Keith
American, 1839-1911
Keith was born in Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where he was raised at first by his grandparents. He emigrated with his mother and sisters to the United States in 1850. They settled in New York City, where he attended school for several years and became an apprentice wood engraver in 1856. He was hired to do illustrations for Harper's Magazine. In 1858 he visited Scotland and England and briefly worked for the London Daily News. He was then offered an opportunity in San Francisco and sailed there in May 1859. Upon Keith's arrival in San Francisco the job he had hoped for did not materialize, so he set up his own engraving business. He first studied painting with Samuel Marsden Brookes in 1863. He first exhibited his watercolors in 1866, and they were praised by critics. His subject matter already included views of Yosemite and other High Sierra locations. By 1868 he had begun painting in oils. That year Keith was able to end his engraving career and pursue painting full time when he received a commission from the Oregon Navigation and Railroad Company to paint scenes of the Pacific Northwest. Keith traveled to Yosemite Valley with a letter of introduction to John Muir. The two men became deep friends for the next 38 years. In 1883 Keith remarried and they went on a painting tour of the old California missions. A few months later they traveled to the East Coast and then to Munich, where Keith was determined to learn figure and portrait painting. In 1886 the Keiths moved to Berkeley, from where he would commute to his studio in San Francisco each day. In 1888 Keith traveled north with Muir, visiting Mount Shasta and Mount Rainier to create illustrations for Muir's Picturesque California. Muir encouraged Keith to depict mountain scenery realistically, but as Keith's artistic sense had matured, he felt free to depart from geologic reality, placing an imagined glacier or a river in a scene to enhance the beauty of the painting. Keith's San Francisco studio was destroyed as a result of the fires following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which resulted in the loss of almost 3000 of his paintings. This tragedy took a toll on Keith's health.
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