Born in Hillsboro, Ohio, Charles Fries was referred to as the dean of San Diego artists from the time he settled in that city in 1897. His reputation was based on magnificent atmospheric desert landscapes, many of them showing historical scenes of the state.

He was raised in Cincinnati and apprenticed there to a lithographer and then studied portraiture at McMicken Art Academy where he associated with other men who became famous artists--J.H. Twachtman, Robert Blum, Kenyon Cox, and Frank Duveneck. He traveled from his Cincinnati studio to sketch in the Southwest, and his lithographs of these travels appeared in "Harper's," "Leslie's," and "Century" magazines.

When he was seventeen years old, he began working in New York City ...