*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		Norton Bush* American 1834-1894 Man on the Tropical River, 1878 Oil on canvas 8 x 14 inches 15.5 x 21.5 inches with original shadowbox frame Signed and dated lower left: NBUSH 1878 PROVENANCE Private collection, by descent in the family CONDITION The painting is in absolutely pristine condition. No restoration or other work has ever been done and there is no damage to the canvas, which bears its original stretcher and gorgeous original frame. Norton Bush was born in Rochester, NY in 1834. He received his art training from important Hudson River artists, Jasper Cropsey and Frederick Church, who inspired Bush to paint many of his tropical scenes. Norton Bush was also one of the West Coast's earliest landscape painters, especially of Sierra Nevada mountain scenes, and eventually earned recognition primarily for his tropical views of South and Central America. Heading for San Francisco in 1853, Bush crossed the Isthmus at Panama through the jungles of Nicaragua, which provided much subject matter. His tropical landscapes were highly exotic in those days but also shared the values espoused by the Hudson River School. Namely, these images were testament to the grandeur of Nature and man's modest but central place within it. His South American subjects brought him patronage from wealthy Californians William Ralston and Henry Meiggs, and their financial support for projects promoting their businesses allowed him to make additional trips to South America in 1868 and 1875. William Ralston, a San Francisco banker, commissioned Bush to paint scenes related to Ralston's business interests in Central America. Similarly, Bush did a series of paintings commissioned by Henry Meiggs, depicting a railroad whose building he had overseen in the Andes Mountains. Bush kept a studio in San Francisco, served as Director of the San Francisco Art Association and was a member of the Brooklyn Art Association. He exhibited at the Chicago 1893 Columbian Exhibition and at the National Academy of Design, among others. This "Tropical Scene" of 1878 is an outstanding example of the artist's finest work. Bush earned fame for his early tropical works, while his later seascapes were less popular. He died in Oakland in 1894.