A landscape painter, he was born in Flint, Michigan on February 6, 1868. Rea moved to northern California with his family in 1876 and settled in the small town of Lincoln in Placer County. He was educated at Methodist College in nearby Napa, where he was a resident from about 1890.

Artistically inclined at an early age, at 17 he won a cash prize at the state fair. Often accompanied by E. A. Burbank, he made painting forays into the area around his home. Rea was averse to having buildings in his landscapes and felt they detracted from his purpose. His sensitive, poetic interpretations of the hills of Marin and Sonoma Counties qualify him as one of California's finest painters. His subject mat

Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"


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