Leonard Lester California artist 1870- 1952 ~Alpine CA

Leonard Lester, California artist 1870- 1952. Pastel on paper laid down on board. Size of sheet 14.25" X 12.5", image size 13" X 11.75". Signed lower left Leonard Lester Alpine Cal 1940. Title on the backing board lower left Temple in the Wilderness. Good over all condition with one dent at the picture edge upper right and backing board damage. Biography from AskArt Painter. Born in Penrith, Cumberland, England on Feb. 4, 1870. Lester was educated in the Quaker tradition. He became interested in an art career in his early teens and studied in England before immigrating to Canada in 1889. In the early 1890s he moved to the U.S., living briefly in Kansas City before settling in Pasadena. In Los Angeles he found employment making pen-and-ink drawings for The Art Amateur. He went to the East for two years of art study at the AIC, NAD, ASL of NYC, and PAFA (1894-96). Returning to California, he had studios in Pasadena, Redlands, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles. Lester studied in Munich and Dresden during 1900-02 and in 1907 was in Cuba where he taught art at the Raja Yoga Schools until 1916. In that year he returned to southern California and lived there for the rest of his life. Until the stock market crash in 1929 he lived in Point Loma and for health reasons then moved to a drier climate at the Julian Eltinge Ranch near Alpine. For many years he painted in the mountains of that area. His final years were spent in Grossmont, CA where he continued to paint until a few years before his death on June 26, 1952. Lester is known for his accurate drawings and atmospheric paintings. Exh: Stickeny Bldg (Pasadena), 1899. In: Orange Co. (CA) Museum; Santa Fe Railroad; San Diego Museum. CSL; AAA 1903-08.