Washington Friend

Monument Park, Colorado

Crica 1880

Watercolor on Paper

Size:  19″ x 14″, Framed:  27″ x 22″

No longer available.

Washington Friend was known for watercolors of the American West, he did panoramic and topographic views, many of them in Colorado including the Garden of the Gods and Yosemite in California. He excelled at capturing the grandeur of the scenery, especially natural forms looming over figures diminished in landscape.

Friend was born in Washington D.C., and little is known about his early life and schooling except that his parents were English, and he taught both music and drawing in Boston. He suffered heavy financial losses in a Boston theater fire and then turned again to painting.

In 1849, he began a three-year tour of Canada and the United States with the goal of creating a giant panoramic painting of the scenic wonders of the land. This panorama was first unveiled in Quebec and then exhibited in cities throughout Canada, the United States, and England where Queen Victoria requested a special showing at Buckingham Palace. He often supplemented the showing of his large paintings with singing of American and Canadian folk songs.

Biography from the Archives of askART