Early California artists
Early California Artists are a subset of American Western artists, painting in the mid-to-late 19th century. Their styles varied from realistic representation to the imagined. The Early California artists helped shape and create California in culture and politics. Some were members of early survey expeditions of the West, such as Thomas Ayres and Albert Bierstadt. Their eyes, via their art, were the eyes through which the Easterners saw and imagined California and 'The West,' from the renowned early California artists Thomas Hill, William Keith, and Thomas Moran to the populist John Englehart. Early art advocacy Their scenic paintings moved U.S. leaders in Washington, D.C., including President Abraham Lincoln. Their visual examples helped define how the United States managed and legislated the territory and then new U.S. state of California, especially represented by the preservation of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove. The American artist helped mold the American West by instilling and fanning the eastern population's desire to create an entirely new endeavor, the protection of huge swaths of natural land as parks for use and enjoyment by the public. Their legacy includes the National Park Service that formed for conservation and the people's benefit, something new in world history.