Raymond Dabb Yelland (1848–1900) was an American landscape painter and art instructor. Born Raymond Dabb in London, he came to the United States in 1850 as a young child, and was raised in Union, New Jersey, and later lived in neighboring

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Union Army during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. After his military service, he attended the Pennington Seminary. He then studied at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

in New York from 1868 to 1872, and was hired as an instructor for one year after his graduation. In 1873, he was hired as a faculty member by

Mills Seminary Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, the first women's college west of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

. He settled in Oakland with his wife, the former Annie Meeker. In 1875, he legally changed his name, as did his wife, adding his mother's maiden name as their surnames. Essentially a Realist, he specialized in painting the seashores and mountains of Northern California. Originally a follower of the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

, Yelland adopted a style called Luminism, inspired by artists such as

Sanford Robinson Gifford Sanford Robinson Gifford (July 10, 1823 – August 29, 1880) was an American landscape painter and a leading member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. A highly-regarded practitioner of Luminism (American art style), Luminis ...

and John F. Kensett. In the 1890s, Yelland was influenced by

Tonalism Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when Visual art of the United States, American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as g ...

, along with contemporaries like William Keith and

George Inness George Inness (May 1, 1825 – August 3, 1894) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter. Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced by the Hudson River Schoo ...

. One of his paintings, ''Cities of the Golden Gate'', a view of Oakland and San Francisco from the Berkeley hills, was described as "monumental" and a "heroic panorama bathed in a revelatory light". Yelland taught for many years at the California School of Design, and also at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in the years before his death. He became ill in the early months of 1900, and died of pneumonia at his home in Oakland that July. The first

solo exhibition A solo show or solo exhibition is an art exhibition, exhibition of the work of only one artist. Rather than a group of artists who collaborate to form an exhibition. The artwork may be paintings, drawings, etchings, collage, sculpture, or photogr ...

of his work in 50 years took place at the

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

in 2018. Raymond Dabb Yelland was the great-uncle of California architect William Raymond Yelland (1892–1966).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yelland, Raymond Dabb 1848 births 1900 deaths American landscape painters Artists from Oakland, California English emigrants to the United States Painters from California