Manuel Valencia

Manuel Valencia (American, 1856–1935)

This work is sold unframed.

Manuel Valencia was born in Marin County, California in 1856 on Rancho San Jose, the Valencia family hacienda. He was a descendant of General Gabriel Valencia, the first governor of the state of Sonora, Mexico under Spanish rule and was named for his grandfather, who arrived in California in 1774 and became administrator of the Presidio in San Francisco.

Valencia was mostly self-taught but studied with San Francisco artists of the period, including Jules Tavernier, and also spent time in Mexico where he was a member of the Esquela de Bellas Artes de Mexico. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, he moved his family to San Jose and commuted daily to his studio in San Francisco. During the early years of the 20th century, he worked for the art patron M.H. de Young as art editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.

By 1912, Valencia was maintaining studios in both Monterey and Santa Cruz and had evolved a tonalist style that was influenced by the nocturnal landscapes of Charles Rollo Peters and James McNeill Whistler. He was also developing a list of celebrated public patrons that included President McKinley. Over the course of a long career, Valencia exhibited widely and with success, including at Gumps in San Francisco and at New York's Macbeth Gallery, and was the recipient of numerous medals, prizes and juried awards. The artist is listed in all relevant art dictionaries including Who's Who in American Art and Artists in California, 1786–1940. Manuel Valencia's work is held in numerous private and public collections including the Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino, California; the San Jose Historical Museum and the Orange County Museum among others. We are pleased to offer this elegant, jewel-like landscape dating to circa 1910.

Peter Kawalkowski (American, 1884–1949) was an art dealer and friend of the artist who, from 1906, sold the paintings of both Manuel Valencia and William Keith from his Oakland gallery and studio.

Signed on label verso

Peter Kawalkowski, Oakland, California

The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism, Carol Lowrey.

Three Hundred Years of American Art, Michael David Zellman.

Artists in California, 1786-1940, Edan Hughes.

Who Was Who in American Art, Peter Hastings Falk.