Classic American Portrait, Oil on Canvas, William Lee Judson, 1882

He was one of the originators of the Arts and Crafts movement in Pasadena, and as a painter he immersed himself in the beauty of the California landscape, producing many shimmering canvases of favorite Plein Air haunts, including the Arroyo Seco, the local missions, Laguna, San Pedro, Santa Catalina and La Jolla. He even located the first campus of the USC College of Fine Arts out on the Arroyo Seco at Garvanza (now Highland Park) because of the burgeoning art community attracted by the landscape. He reportedly lost many of his paintings in a fire at the USC campus in 1910, but recovered and continued to paint steadily. For all his local influence, a century later it is a rare treat to view his luminous paintings of the California landscape in a small but rich exhibition culled from the collection of his great-grandson, H. Douglas Judson.