Born in Gold Hill of Placer County, California, Lorenzo Latimer became a prolific California landscape painter and highly respected teacher. He is best known for his watercolor paintings of picturesque views of northern California including giant redwoods, Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

He was the son of California pioneers, and his father, Lorenzo Dow Latimer, was a lawyer in Chicago and then moved his family to California where he tried gold mining. Failing to have success, he practiced law in that state, first in Gold Hill in Placer County and then in Santa Rosa of Sonoma County. Lorenzo Latimer's mother died when he was six years old, and the father married Sarah Rich from a local ranching family. The Latimers moved...