?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
SAM HYDE HARRIS (1889-1977) ONLY SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRAINS SHOW YOU THE COAST LINE. Tempera on board. Circa 1937. 27 1/2x39 1/2 inches, 70x100 1/4 cm. Condition B+: chipping and flaking in image. Framed. Harris was born in England and moved to Los Angeles when he was 15. His career began as a commercial artist, painting notices on sides of buildings, creating signs and billboards, designing posters and typography and more. In 1920, he was hired by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company to design posters. He also worked for the Southern Pacific. "The major portion of the advertising appeared in brochures, magazines and newspapers, but local advertisements were in the form of billboards and hand-painted posters that appeared in department stores, banks, displays in windows and bulletin boards in ticket offices and lobbies" (Harris p. 18). The Coast Daylight began service in 1937, running up and down the California coast, making the trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Train #99, depicted here, made the northbound route and train #98 returned southbound. The elegant and streamlined cars were pulled by the sleek GS-2 engines, all marked by their red and orange Daylight colors. Harris is best remembered as a Southern Californian plein air painter, but his bright, bold advertising work for the railroads was an important part of the American commercial landscape in the 1930s and 40s. Harris p. 104.
Provenance: from the family of the artist through the California State Railroad Museum.
