- Title
- Mission Ruins
- Date Made
- 1920
- Medium
- Oil on board
- Dimensions
- 11 × 14 in. (27.94 × 35.56 cm)
Framed: 16 3/4 × 19 1/2 × 1 1/4 in. (42.55 × 49.53 × 3.18 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.80.193.2
- Collecting Area
- American Art
- Curatorial Notes
Villa often painted the missions of Southern California and was so well acquainted with their architecture that he served as a consultant during the restoration of the Santa Barbara mission. The ruins in this painting are probably those of San Juan Capistrano, for other paintings of that mission inscribed with dates place Villa there in October 1920. Founded in 1776 by Father Junipero Serra, the San Juan Capistrano mission was one of twenty-one built by the Spaniards. After suffering extensive damage in an earthquake in December 1812, the church was used only as a warehouse, and many of the structure’s stones and tiles taken for use elsewhere. The arches and wall fragment Villa delineated may have been from the mission’s patio corridor.
- Selected Bibliography
- Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick. American Art: a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
