Settlement in the Napa Valley, Near St. Helena, California 1885 Virgil Williams

  Virgil Williams (American, 1830–1886) Settlement in the Napa Valley, Near St. Helena, California Signed, located and dated 'Virgil Williams./S.F./1885' bottom right, oil on canvas 20 1/2 x 39 3/4 in. (52.1 x 101cm)   Provenance: Private Collection, Vermont (acquired circa 1890s). By descent in the family. Private Collection, Pennsylvania.   Virgil Williams was one of the most important artists working in San Francisco in the third quarter of the 19th Century. Born in Maine, Williams began his artistic studies in New England and first travelled West at the invitation of Alfred Bierstadt in 1863. After further studies in Italy, Williams and his wife returned West to Northern California, stopping briefly in San Francisco in 1871, before moving to their preferred and more tranquil setting of Napa Valley. Living near Mount St. Helena offered Williams a rural environment where he could hunt and make studies from both life and death of the local wild animals as well as the surrounding lands