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Ad Code: 3
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from Auction House Records.
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Eschwege, Germany near Kassel on October 2, 1835, Friedrich Wilhelm Billing followed his father’s wishes and pursued a career in business. Around 1856, however, Friedrich decided to depart for America and he settled in Brooklyn. He married Wilhelmina Sickert and had two daughters, Bertha and Minnie. Now calling himself Frederick, the future painter and his brother Gustav both served in the Union Army during the Civil War and were honorably discharged. Frederick opened a brokerage firm called Hagen and Billing on Wall Street, following the war. Around that time, he was encouraged to paint landscapes by the German-American Hudson River School painter Johann Hermann Carmiencke (1810-1867) who was previously the court painter to the King of Denmark. Billing painted some European scenes from memory but then turned to New York landscapes. In 1876, he exhibited Approach of a Storm in the Oaks and two other paintings at the Brooklyn Art Association. Billing sought a healthier climate in the West, following his brother, who had moved to Leadville, Colorado. William went to Salt Lake City where he worked as an ore buyer and he operated the Flagstaff Mine in the Wasatach Range. There he painted traditional landscapes that recall the Düsseldorf and Hudson River schools. In spite of many lively details, works reveal a classical (“heroic”) landscape mentality. Billing met the famous landscape painter of the West, Thomas Moran and both visited Yellowstone Park with a group of about ten in 1894. William Henry Jackson made a photographic record of the trip. Billing’s painting Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River includes a tree in the foreground painted by Moran, while Peter Moran, his brother, inserted a stag on the right. Billing decided to go into a winery business on a ranch near Woodside, California with his son-in-law, J.F. Coope, the husband of his daughter Bertha. In 1903, Billing apparently stopped painting but he lived eleven years longer.
MAJOR SOURCE:
Mackenzie Gordon, “Frederick William Billing (Friedrich Wilhelm Billing) 1835-1914,” in Frederick William Billing (Friedrich Wilhelm Billing) 1835-1914: A Gentleman Artist. Exh. cat. Riverside, CA: University of California, Riverside Art Gallery, 1976. Submitted by Michael Preston Worley, Ph.D. R.H. Love Galleries, Chicago
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  The following is from Mackenzie Gordon, great-grandson of the artist.
Born
October 2, 1835, in Eschwege near Kassel, Germany, Frederic Billing
received his schooling in that town but did not go to a
university. He had an early interest in art, but his father
forbade him to pursue fine art because he wanted his son to become a
business man, which he did. And then he used his money to buy
paints and brushes, which he concealed in the house.
In the mid
1850s, when he came of age, Billing came to America to seek his
fortune, and he settled in Brooklyn where he married Wilhelmina Sickert
from Dusseldorf, Germany. He served in the Civil War and wounded,
received an honorable discharge, and then in Brooklyn, opened a
brokerage business, Hagen and Billing. During this time, he completed
paintings, primarily still lifes and figurative subjects with dark
backgrounds. By the mid 1860s, he turned to landscapes,
encouraged by Johann Carmiencke with whom he studied.
During the
1870s, most of his paintings were European landscapes he recalled from
earlier travels, but he also depicted scenes in the New York region and
exhibited once at the Brooklyn Academy of Painting.
In the late
'70s, because of poor health, he moved to Leadville, Colorado, where
his brother Gustav had preceded him and now, with a partner, owned a
smelter. From 1879 to 1885, Frederick Billing lived in Salt Lake City,
where he became an ore buyer, and for a brief period, he operated the
Flagstaff Mine in the Wasatch Range.
During this time, he
painted landscapes of the Wasatch Range, Twin Falls region, Green
River, Teton Mountains, and Yellowstone Park, which he visited with
Thomas and Peter Moran. The friendship of this threesome is
indicated by a painting of the Falls of the Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone River, painted primarily by Billing, with a large tree in
the left foreground by Thomas Moran and a stag in the right foreground
by Peter Moran. All three initialed the work.
In 1884,
Billing's daughter married an Englishman, J.F. Coope, and the Coopes
and the Billings went into a farming partnership near Woodside,
California. However, the couples did not get along very well
because Billling was such a strong minded man. He continued to paint
with his last painting dated 1903.
He died in August of 1914.
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Eschwege near Kassel, Germany on Oct. 2, 1835, Frederick
Billing showed an interest in art at an early age; however, his father
forbade him to paint and destroyed all of his early work.
In 1855 he came to the U.S. and settled in Brooklyn. During the
Civil War he fought on the Union side, was wounded in battle and
honorably discharged. After the war he returned to Brooklyn and opened
a brokerage business at 1 Wall Street. He subsequently studied painting
with Johan Herman Carmiencke.
His early paintings were mostly still lives and figures with dark
backgrounds; whereas, by the mid-1860s he had turned to landscapes. Due
to poor health he moved to Salt Lake City in the 1870s. There he
did his most impressive landscapes of the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and
Wasatch Range. He was a good friend of Thomas Moran and was often
assisted by Moran on a painting, each working on a specific portion of
the canvas. It was said that Moran considered him the most talented
amateur painter he knew.
In 1880 Billing moved to Santa Cruz, CA and bought a winery in Ben Lomond where he remained until his death on July 23, 1914.
He painted in Yosemite, the northern coast, and the Santa Cruz Mountains. Exh: UC Riverside, 1976 (retrospective).
Collections: Oakland Museum; Smithsonian Institution | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Interview with the artist or his/her family; California State Library (Sacramento); Art & Artists in Santa Cruz. | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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Frederick Billing is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Painters of Grand Canyon
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