Grafton Tyler Brown was the first professional African American
artist to work on the West Coast of the United States and one of
the few black painters, along with Robert S. Duncanson
[1970.496] and Edward Mitchell Bannister [2011.1820] to achieve
any degree of popular success in the nineteenth century. Trained
as a lithographer, in the 1870s he sold his printing business in
San Francisco and turned to painting the dramatic vistas of
Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Pacific Northwest. Such views,
including this image of Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone,
required rigorous travel across a vast region and thus reveal
Brown’s ambition and determination. Capitalizing upon his
commercial experience as a printmaker, Brown actively promoted
himself as a landscape painter. He skillfully navigated the
social and commercial infrastructure to sell his works, despite
obstacles that many artists, much less those facing racial
discrimination, found daunting. Brown advertised his work to
prospective clients and cultivated pr