Santa Cruz Arch Oil Painting by Frank Lucien Heath
ARTIST FRANK LUCIEN HEATH (1857–1921)
By Victoria Chick
Although well‑known and respected in his own time, Frank Lucien Heath has not come down to us as a widely famous painter. One reason may be that his active career after graduating from the California School of Design lasted only about thirty‑four years before his death from illness in 1921. Another reason may be that opportunities for artistic recognition in late‑19th‑century and early‑20th‑century America were limited. While a few local exhibitions existed in California, where he lived, major opportunities tended to arise only through the large, year‑long expositions held in major cities. These expositions celebrated the “golden age” of American progress, and culture — including painting — was given a place within them.
Heath’s work was accepted into several of these important venues, including the California State Fair in 1888, the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. His growing reputation also benefited from a national surge of interest in the American West. Transcontinental train travel had become popular, and the establishment of the National Parks system encouraged a romantic fascination with western scenery, especially among Eastern travelers. Many visitors purchased Heath’s wooded landscapes and coastal views as mementos of their journeys, allowing him to enjoy a measure of financial success.
By the Foaming Merced, Yosemite Valley by Frank L. Heath
Heath’s parents moved the family from rural Oregon to the small coastal town of Santa Cruz, California, when he was young. It is not surprising, then, that after years spent amid the growth and bustle of San Francisco, he returned to Santa Cruz and established his studio there.
Frank Lucien Heath’s place in art history rests on his role as one of the early, skillful painters who recorded the beauty and majesty of the western landscape — its dynamic mountains, forested interiors, and the rocky Pacific coast. Landscape was his sole subject. Artists like Heath were realists, yet they chose locations that inspired them, producing a genre of painting that has continued to influence American artists in every generation.
Most of Heath’s paintings remain in private collections, but public holdings include works owned by the Society of California Pioneers, the Monterey Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, and the Southwest Museum of Art.
Victoria Chick is the founder of the Cow Trail Art Studio in southwest New Mexico. She received a B.A. in Art from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and awarded an M.F.A. in Painting from Kent State University in Ohio. Visit her website at www.ArtistVictoriaChick.com and learn more about the Southwest Regional Museum of Art & Art Center.