Henrietta Riddell Fish 1856 - 1925

Marsh Sunset	Yosemite Valley Chapel

Native Californian, Henrietta Riddle Fish was an exceptional landscape painter.

She was born in 1856 in Benicia, a small town located where the Sacramento River flows into San Francisco Bay and, at the time, the capitol of the new state. Henrietta's parents came to California during the Gold Rush, and remained to raise their family. She graduated from Benicia's Young Ladies Seminary, and taught there in 1879-1880. At that time, she kept exotic pets on the family estate such as snakes, alligators, and peacocks.

She persued her art studies at the School of Design in San Francisco, and remained active in the art world painting landscapes and portraits until her death in 1925. She exhibited her work at the Mechanic's Institute in San Francisco between 1878 - 1894. Her work was also exhibited at the Women's Building at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893.

Sources : Artists in California 1786 - 1940, Edan Milton Hughes, 3d ed.