Norton Bush (American, 1834 to 1894)
Norton Bush was born in Rochester, New York on February 22, 1834. As a teenager he studied in the studios of Jasper Cropsey and James Harris. He received criticism from Frederick Church who was already famous for his lush tropical scenes. It was Church who encouraged Bush to paint tropicals. Bush came to San Francisco in 1853 via the Isthmus of Panama and the Chagres River. He remained in San Francisco with a studio in the Mercantile Building except during 1869-72 when he was in New York City, voyages to South America on sketching trips, and a few years when he had a studio in Sacramento.
From 1878 to 1880 he was the director of the San Francisco Art Association and art director of the California section at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. In his later years he painted many marines which were not as popular as his tropicals. Bush died in Oakland, California of a heart attack on April 24, 1894. He was a member of Bohemian Club and San Francisco Art Association.
-Edan Milton Hughes
Information courtesy of Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, July 2012.
Works by Norton Bush are held by:
Society of California Pioneers;
Crocker Museum (Sacramento);
Oakland Museum;
California Historical Society.” Bush was a member of the Bohemian Club and San Francisco Art Association.
Information courtesy of Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, July 2014.