At age twenty-eight, Richard DeTreville moved to California from his native South Carolina. He settled in Stockton where he established a small newspaper called Det's Magazine. At age 46, he moved to San Francisco in 1910. There, he painted and worked as a cartoonist for the Park Presidio News.

Little is known of his training, and he was probably self taught. He was quite prolific, painting numerous landscapes of familiar California scenery, the San Francisco Bay, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and Northern California.

Source: Askart, submitted by James Berdan of California, September 2002, citing his source Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940.