Ralph Holmes (1876-1963)

Untitled mountain landscape

Date unknown (circa 1940)
Oil on canvas

15” H x 20” W (image size)
19” H x 24” W (frame size)

Signed lower right: Ralph Holmes

Estimated value: $1,000 - $1,500

Additional Information

Ralph Holmes (1876-1963) is one of many historic California artists tied to Santa Paula through the long-running Santa Paula Art Show and the resulting Santa Paula civic art collection. In fact, Holmes, a respected Los Angeles art critic, served as the one-man jury for the very first Santa Paula Art Show in 1937. Holmes entered his own paintings in subsequent years of the show, and nine of his works were awarded purchase prizes and are now preserved in the City of Santa Paula’s permanent art collection.

In his memoir, “Recollections of a Country Banker,” Santa Paula artist Douglas Shively (1896-1991), founder of the Santa Paula Art Show, recalls Ralph Holmes “as one of the wealthiest men [he] had ever known.” He goes on to explain that “there are various measurements of wealth. One was friends. [Shively] had never known a man who had so many enthusiastic friends.”

Another Santa Paula artist, Cornelis Botke (1887-1954), had his own story about Holmes: “I was an art student at the Chicago Institute… living in a garret… an immigrant from Holland… discouraged… knowing little English… and short of funds when the registrar from the school dropped by. He said he had some sandwiches which he would like to share while he looked over my work. That someone important in the school cared, plus his encouragement was the turning point in my life.”

Artist Biography

Known as a writer as well as an artist and teacher, Ralph Holmes distinguished himself as a mural painter in Pittsburgh and New York before moving to California where he had a long teaching and painting career. His landscapes of Yosemite and Bryce Canyon, as well as the desert and rolling hills of Southern California brought him national fame.

Holmes was born in La Grange, Illinois in 1876. He attended Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago before studying in Paris. From 1903 to 1912, Holmes was on the faculty of the Art Institute of Chicago. He then spent five years as Chair of the Department of Painting and Decorating at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. 

In 1916, Holmes went west, spending the summer on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. In 1918, he moved to Atascadero in Southern California and became a teacher at the Otis Art Institute from 1923 to 1948. For 25 years, he was also an art instructor at the Marlborough School for Girls. He served as art editor and writer for E.G. Lewis's Illustrated Review; was a four-term president of the California Art Club; was president of "Art in National Defense" during WWII; and was a member of the Academy of Western Painters.

Auction Information

The 13th Annual Fine Art Auction Fundraiser
Saturday, August 19, 2023
The silent auction starts at 3:00 PM.
The live auction starts at 4:00 PM.
Auction admission: $15.00 SPAM members, $20.00 Non-members

All proceeds benefit the Santa Paula Art Museum, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization #2478728.

All major credit cards, check, and cash are accepted.
Sales tax will be applied to all hammer prices. There is no buyer’s premium.

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