Born in Los Angeles, CA on Oct. 1, 1881, the son of Esiquia and Miguel de Villa. His parents came to Los Angeles from Baja California in 1846 when the area was still part of Mexico. Raised in an artistic milieu, his mother was an amateur singer and his father an artist with a studio on the Plaza. Villa studied locally under Louise Garden-MacLeod at the School of Art & Design in 1905, and later taught there after studying for one year in England and Germany. He established a studio in Los Angeles and worked as a commercial artist and illustrator for the Santa Fe Railroad for 40 years. He died in Los Angeles on May 7, 1952. Equally facile with oil, watercolor, pastel, and charcoal, he produced scenes of the Old West, Indians, missions,

Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Southern California Artists (Nancy Moure); Artists of the American West (Samuels); Calif. Design, 1910.

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