Hernando Villa (1881-1952)
Hernando Gonzallo Villa, painter, illustrator, muralist, was born in Los Angeles October 1 1881. His parents Esiquia and Miguel de Villa arrived in L.A. from Baja California in 1846 when California was still part of Mexico. Hernando was raised in an artistic household, his mother being an amateur singer and his father an artist with a studio in the Plaza.Villa attended the School of Art & Design in 1905 where he studied under L. E. Garden-Macleod. After studying abroad for one year in England and Germany he returned to teach there.He established a studio in L. A. where he worked as commercial artist and illustrator for the Santa Fe Railroad for the next 40 years. Equally adept in watercolors, oils, pastel and charcoal, his specialty was scenes from the Old West portraying the Indians, Missions, Mexican Vaqueros, Cowboys and landscapes of that era. His best known work "The Chief" is the emblem of the Santa Fe Railroad.
Villa exhibited extensively in Los Angeles. He was awarded a gold medal at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in1915 for a mural. Collections of his work are held by the Laguna Beach Museum, Los Angeles County Art Museum, Ft. Worth Museum of Art, Citizens Bank & Trust (mural) in L.A. , Santa Fe Railroad Collection, New Rialto Theater (mural) Phoenix Az. He is listed in So. Ca. Artists 1890-1940, Ca. Design 1910, Who's Who in L.A. County 1927-28, member of the Southern Ca. Art Association. Hernando Villa died on May 7 1952.
(Source; E. Hughes- Artists of California 1890 to 1940
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