He's been called the premier painter of the American West. His vivid landscapes stretch from Impressionism to modernism depicting the dramatic beauty of the Southwest. Today on KVPR's Central Valley Roots the story of Fresno's Maynard Dixon.
Fresno was just a few years old when Maynard Dixon was born there in 1875. His family had a ranch north of the San Joaquin River in what is now Madera County and lived for a time in Millerton. His first influence in the art world was Fredrick Remington, who encouraged the young Dixon to pursue his career in art. Dixon was largely a self-taught artist, though he briefly attended the California School of Design.
There in San Francisco he worked for publications like the San Francisco Call. That’s how he met his mentor, journalist Charles Lummis, founder of the Southwest Museum. Lummis encouraged young Dixon to “travel east to see the real west” so off Dixon went to Arizona and New Mexico.
While San Francisco would be his home base for much of his career, the landscapes of the Southwest would be his muse. His early works bore hallmarks of the impressionist style, with a romantic flair for the dramatic beauty of the western landscape. But as he matured, his style changed, becoming more geometric and stylized, influenced by modernism. Some of that was likely due to the influence of his second wife, noted portrait photographer Dorthea Lange.
Dixon would eventually move to Arizona, where he died in 1946. Today he is known as an important American painter, and one of Fresno’s first and most important contributors to the world of art and culture.
