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Orcas Island Sunset 18" x 36"
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Born in Austria in 1859, John Fery studied art in Vienna, Dusseldorf, and Munich. He conducted hunting expeditions to the American West for wealthy Europeans before settling in the United States in 1886. He lived for various lengths of time in Arizona, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. While traveling and painting in the Rocky Mountains, Fery impressed members of the Hill family, developers of the Northern Pacific Railroad, who hired him to paint pictures dramatizing the beauties of the region. May of the more than three-hundred works he completed hung in station houses, hotels, and lodges served by the railroad. The Northern Pacific Railroad was not only an important patron for Fery and other artists, but as has been noted by William Gerdts in “Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting 1710-1920” and others, the stations and hotels served in a real sense as the first “art galleries” in the West, at a time before traditional art institutions were even envisioned in the region. Braarud Fine Art is interested in all works by John Fery. |