This is a masterful and historically Important Early Old California Plein Air Impressionist Landscape Oil Painting on canvas, by early Manhattan Beach luminary, and founding member of the Painters Club of Los Angeles (created 1906,) Albert Clinton Conner A. Conner 1848 – 1929. This artwork depicts a bucolic and finely detailed wooded landscape scene, likely in the San Gabriel Mountain range. Delicately painted trees, snow covered peaks in the distance, and autumnal hued foliage punctuate the scene. Conner in the lower right corner. This artwork likely dates to the 1900’s – 1910’s. Approximately 15 x 19 inches including frame. Actual artwork is approximately 10 x 14 inches. Good condition for over a century of age, with light craquelure in some areas, and mild scuffing and edge wear to the gilded wood frame please see photos. Acquired in Los Angeles County, California. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! 1848 – Fountain City, Indiana. 1929 – Manhattan Beach, California. Landscape and marine painting. A self-taught painter, Albert Conner was born in Fountain City, Indiana and spent most of his career in that state. In the early 1900s, he moved to Los Angeles and began exhibiting in local galleries. He did many paintings of Manhatten Beach, where he was elected City Treasurer when the town was newly incorporated and was active until his death on april 13, 1929. He was a long-time member of the California Art Club. His painting of “The Grand Canyon” is in the Santa Fe Railroad Collection, and he also has work in the collection of the Manhatton Beach Historical Society. ALBERT CLINTON CONNER, ARTIST. Albert Clinton Conner – Biography. Born on September 5, 1848 in Fountain City, Indiana to James Henry Conner and Sarah Jane Keever Conner. Siblings included Louisa b. 1854, John Charles Fremont b. 1857 and Henrietta’Ettie’ b. AC and Viola married on March 8, 1871 in Richmond, Indiana. They had five children all born in Richmond, Indiana: Jessie b. 1879 And Fred H. 1871 – 1887, employed by the Hoosiers Drill Company as a pattern maker. Letter of recommendation from the Superintendent of Hoosiers Drill Company. Conner has been employed with us as a pattern maker for the past six years, and during that time has filled the position with much credit to himself and has given us entire satisfaction in every respect. He is a first class mechanic and draughtsmen, an excellent worker, and in addition to this possesses a large stock of ingenuity and talent that is invaluable to one of his profession. We have always regarded Mr. Conner as a gentleman of ability and intelligence, and earnestly recommend him to those desiring his services, confident that he will prove trustworthy and satisfactory in every respect. The Ramblers Sketch Club. John Charles, known as Charles, was a painter in his own right. Together with Frank Girardin and Micajah Thomas Nordyke, the brothers founded The Rambler’s Sketch Club in 1881 in Indiana. Soon after they added John Elwood Bundy to their members. The Rambler’s Sketch Club later became The Richmond Art Association. AC and Charles moved to Los Angeles, California in 1887. He and his family resided at 232 South Griffin Avenue in the area now called Lincoln Heights. The Painters Club of Los Angeles. Created on 03.17.1906 in the studio of William Swift Daniell. AC Conner was elected first President, their intended mission was’ to meet in the spirit of comradeship and good temper for mutual criticism and suggestion on one another’s recent work. 11 founding members and present that evening: Anthony E. Anderson, Carl Oscar Borg, William Henry Cole, AC Conner, Frank Charles Conner, David H. Dunn, William Swift Daniell, Frank Elwin Evans, Frank Rensselear Liddell, Hanson Puthoff and George Thomas Winterburn. New virtual exhibit at Manhattan Beach Art Center opens this week. The Manhattan Beach Art Center will launch this weekend a new virtual exhibit featuring the work of two major local artists. The exhibit is titled “Rediscovered: The Life and Art of AC Conner and Eva Joseph Goldsheid, ” and explores the importance both artists had on Manhattan Beach culture. The work featured in the two-month exhibit spans the artists’ collective 120 years in Manhattan Beach. An online gallery and video presentation of the exhibition will go up on the city’s website at 6 p. Visiting the exhibit in person is not possible at the moment because the art center is closed to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic. Conner was born in Indiana in 1848. Conner was inspired by regionalism, an offshoot of landscape painting. As he trekked west, ultimately on his way to California, he painted national landmarks like the Grand Canyon. Connor eventually set roots in Manhattan Beach to further pursue his love of painting and nature. But he was also Manhattan Beach’s first city treasurer. He helped build the foundation of the city’s local government. But beyond that, he also created clubs and opportunities for musicians and artists to gather and share their craft with one another. He exhibited his work throughout Los Angeles County so people could experience the region’s nature even if they weren’t able to visit it personally. Conner died in 1929. Eva Joseph Goldsheid, meanwhile, was born in 1926 in Germany. In 1938, when she was 12 years old, Goldsheid and her mother – who were Jewish – escaped Nazi Germany and fled to New York. Once in the United States, Goldsheid fulfilled her dream of becoming a successful artist. She was influenced by the abstract expressionism movement and her personal style was steeped in self-expression. Goldsheid influenced generations of artists, teaching classes in Manhattan Beach until she died in 2017. The exhibit will run from Friday, Jan. 22, to March 21. He art center, however, will have the paintings up on its walls in case the pandemic wanes and it can reopen before the exhibit ends, said Eilen Stewart, the city’s acting manager for the Cultural Arts Division. Sometime circa 1909 Albert Clinton Conner stepped off a train into a fledgling little development called Manhattan Beach. Further down the rails, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach were already booming beach towns, but the scraggly sandswept environs of Manhattan Beach – dominated by a large series of dunes forming a crest through the middle of the settlement – had made it less desirable for prospective homeowners. It wouldn’t become incorporated as a city for another three years. But “Pops, ” as Conner was known, didn’t have a problem with dusty places. He was patternmaker, inventor, and artist; he was attracted to new frontiers. He’d spent most of his 61 years in Indiana. He was a self-taught Impressionist painter of some acclaim who, along with his brother, Charles, had founded the Rambler’s Sketch Club, which metamorphosed into the renowned Richmond Art Group. Richmond was a small and surprisingly art-minded little city in the flatlands of eastern Indiana. 12,000 at the time Conner lived on its outskirts, was the seat Wayne County and the first place a motion picture was ever shown to an audience, home to one of the first jazz record labels in history (Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust” was originally recorded there), and the smallest community in the United States to have supported a professional opera company and symphony orchestra. Conner moved to Los Angeles in 1887. He was one of the founders of the California Painters Club and served as its first president in 1906. The club would later become the California Art Club, one of the oldest organizations of its kind still extant, and its early shows featured Conner’s work. In fact, his paintings of Manhattan Beach would be the first sight many people ever had of the town. At one point, almost every painter from the Rambler’s Sketch Club had a reunion in Los Angeles. Manhattan Beach became one of their favorite subjects. “‘Our friends in Richmond wouldn’t believe that we travel 27 miles to sketch, and return the same day,'” remarked Conner to his mates, according to a 1911 Los Angeles Times story. Conner was increasingly drawn to the wild beauty of the little beach community, as were his compatriots. “They rented a bungalow at Manhattan Beach, and every day sallied forth to sketch together, as they used to do 30 years ago, ” the Los Angeles Times reported. Finally, Conner and his family relocated to the beach. When the city incorporated in 1912, he was elected its first treasurer. “He was a founder of Manhattan Beach, ” said Martin Betz, the city’s cultural arts manager. It’s interesting that art is in Manhattan Beach before the surfers, or volleyball. Beach volleyball probably wasn’t even invented yet in 1912. Conner was also friends with William Wendt, considered “the dean of of Southern California landscape painters” and one of the key players in establishing Laguna Beach as an artistic hub. Betz believes that Laguna’s more tame natural environment played a role in its becoming a gathering point for artists, relative to the unruliness of Manhattan Beach. “What happened – this is my theory – is Manhattan Beach was so sandy at that time, it was really hard to paint outside, because sand can really mess up paint, ” Betz said. Laguna Beach didn’t have sand in the same way – it’s a canyon there, really not much sand, just a river entering the sea. A century later, Manhattan Beach intends to change that narrative. A public arts initiative is underway. Betz is spearheading the effort, and the current City Council has taken an aggressive, arts-forward stance. Among the projects underway are a sculpture garden, the installation of 15 to 20 murals throughout the city, wraparound art on utility boxes, and a grants program meant to fund small scale art projects at local schools and elsewhere in the community – things such as dance performances at Joslyn or Heights Community Centers, theater productions at Mira Costa High School, and exhibits in restaurants and coffee houses. The goal is nothing less than to transform Manhattan Beach into one of the focal points for art in the region. I think we’ve gotten nowhere for far too long. I’ve said it for years: we should be the Florence of Southern California. Mayor Amy Howorth shares that vision. Like Napolitano and Betz, she believes public art should be a focal point, but also only a starting point. “We are world famous for beaches and surf culture and beach volleyball, ” Howorth said. These are are great, healthy, wonderful things to do, but we should also be known for our writers and screenwriters. We have thought leaders here, and artists, business leaders and design innovators. We are a very special place and I want us to be as proud of these other types of culture as we are about sports. This initiative that Martin is spearheading is a really big part of that. I think Steve and I both feel we don’t always have to make a grand gesture about art. It can be art that you just happen upon, and it doesn’t have to be conventional forms of art. Conner, who had almost been forgotten locally, will be the subject of a semi-permanent exhibit featuring nine of his paintings at City Hall. Bridges, who was asked to do the renderings by City Councilperson Richard Montgomery but whose project will likely need to go through a Request for Proposal process, said he saw it as an opportunity for Manhattan Beach to reclaim its own art.