William Franklin Jackson was an accomplished California artist known for his painted views of poppy fields. Jackson was born in 1850 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and at the age of twelve he and his family headed west to California.

Jackson lived in San Francisco, California, and attended the California School of Design studying under Virgil Williams. Later in his career he took many painting trips to the American River and the Sierra Nevada Mountains with painter friend William Keith.

Jackson's style, and that of his contemporaries John Gamble and Granville Redmond, was a departure from the already popular landscapes of the East Coast. The brightly colored floral countryside of California was a sharp contrast t...