At the age of 18, when his family emigrated from England to the United States, Edwin Deakin was already established as a landscape painter. 17 years later, in 1873, he left his adopted home in San Francisco and traveled back across the Atlantic, painting in England, France and Switzerland and exhibiting in the prestigious Paris Salon.
He returned to the U.S to acclaim and attention for both his landscapes and his still life paintings — particularly those of grapes, which have a remarkable sensation of atmosphere for a seemingly simple still life subject.
His landscape and cityscape paintings have a wonderfully tactile sensation of the textures of wood, stone and concrete.
There is a book from the LA County Museum of Natural History that collects A Gallery of California Mission Paintings by Edwin Deakin (Amazon link)
