The Olives, Santa Monica Canyon - Gift by the Artist to Mary Pickford by Arthur Millier

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Beautiful, simple rural scene from the early 1920s by listed British-American artist Arthur Millier (1893-1975). Signed by the artist, right … Read more Beautiful, simple rural scene from the early 1920s by listed British-American artist Arthur Millier (1893-1975). Signed by the artist, right corner below the image; titled lower center edge of paper below the mat "The Olives, Santa Monica Canyon" . Presented to Mary Pickford as a Christmas gift. Presented in an archival mat. Art has undergone professional ph balance and acid free paper conservation. Image, 6.63"H x 8.63"W; paper size 9.38"W x 11.07"W.

From the Mary Pickford Collection of Elizabeth "Bess Huggins" Mary Pickfords' personal assistant and life long companion and friend.

Arthur Henry Thomas Millier was born in Somerset, England on Oct. 19, 1893. Millier immigrated to California in 1908 and, after graduating from Los Angeles High School, studied at the local Art Student League. From 1913-1915 he was involved in commercial art. His art pursuits were interrupted by WWI in which he served in France with the First Canadian Pioneers and was wounded at the Battle of the Somme.

Following the war he lived in San Francisco where he attended the California School of Fine Arts (San Francisco) and etched a series of street scenes. By 1922 Arthur Millier had his first one-man exhibition of etchings. Upon returning to Los Angeles in 1922, he taught part time at the Chouinard School, Otis Art Institute, USC, and Pasadena Art Institute.

In 1926 Mr. Millier began his writing career as an art critic for the Los Angeles Times and, when he retired in 1958 after 35 years with the Times, he was well known as the Dean of American Newspaper Art Critics. Millier's art output was minimal after becoming an art critic for the Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Millier was a member of the International Art Critics Association; he won the first Frank Jewett Mather Citation of the College Art Association [national] for the best newspaper art criticism in a major United States newspaper in 1954; he was co-chairman pro-tem and founding member of Art and Music Friends and the International Student Center in Westwood, California. Mr. Millier won many awards and prizes for his etchings, and his etchings are included in collections in the Library of Congress in Washington, died C., the Chicago Art Institute, the Los Angeles County Museum, Pasadena Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Library, and in numerous private collections. He has been on the art teacher’s faculties at the University of Southern California and Otis Art Institute.

Member: Chicago and California Societies of Etchers; California Art Club; California Printmakers.

Exhibited: San Francisco Art Association, 1920, 1924; California Society of Etchers, Stanford Univ., 1922 (award), 1928; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1928; LA County Fair, 1931 (1st prize); California Watercolor Society, 1933; LA Municipal Art Gallery, 1972 (solo). See less