Note
Anna Hills
(b. 1882, Ravenna, Ohio – d. 1930, Laguna Beach, CA)
DESERT GOLD (WHITEWATER, NEAR SAN JACINTO)
1924, Oil on canvas, 24 x 32 inches
Jonathan Art Foundation collection
Acquired with major funding by the Betty and Richard Oxford Trust
Anna Hills was one of the highly talented artists who put Laguna Beach on the map as a premier art colony during the early 20th century. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Woman’s School of Art in New York. She settled in Laguna Beach in 1912, and as a founding member of the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918, Hills was one of its most dynamic leaders and was a driving force in creating and funding the first permanent LBAA gallery. Hills died in 1930, shortly after the gallery’s opening.