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Norton Bush

Paintings in Inventory

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Artist's Biography

Norton Bush studied with Jasper Cropsey as a teenager in New York and then emigrated to California where he became part of the fledgling art colony in San Francisco during the 1860s.  After a sketching tour to Central America in 1868, Bush increasingly turned to tropical subjects, which were popular in San Francisco.  A majority of San Francisco residents before 1869 had experienced a taste of the tropics in their pioneer journey to California, and Bush's transcriptions of the lush beauty of the region evoked nostalgic memories.  Bush’s favorite subject was the tropical lagoon framed by palm trees.  He was a master at capturing the soft harmonies of sunset in the tropics and their reflections in still water.  In a review of Bush’s 1874 exhibition, the art critic for the San Francisco Evening Post wrote: "Not only is the vegetation splendidly tinted, but the atmosphere is ‘warm, soft and golden, and the water as perfectly represented as can be imagined… Mr. Bush occupies a leading position as an American artist and the newspapers of New York and other Eastern cities have often referred to his paintings in terms of warm eulogy."  (Oct. 27, 1874).