The first known African American artist working professionally in California, Grafton Tyler Brown began his career as a lithographer in San Francisco, designing commercial advertisements, maps, and city views. In 1879, he sold his lithography company to concentrate on painting landscapes of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Fascinated by the effects of light and atmosphere on a single subject, he painted several views of Washington’s iconic Tahoma (also known as Mount Rainier), including this luminous depiction of the snow-covered peak.
