Desert scene with mountains in background, oil on board, pencil-signed lower right John W. Hilton. Although best known as a landscape painter of the American Southwest, John Hilton was a man of multiple talents. Hilton was also a naturalist whose work on desert subjects was incorporated in numerous museum publications, a biologist and botanist whose discoveries led to the naming of species of crabs, ticks, snakes, turtles and cacti in his name, a jewelry designer for the Hollywood elite in the Roaring Twenties, a gemologist of international repute, a southern California desert guide for General Patton, a miner and prospector, the author of several books and a musician whose musical talents allowed him to make a living while he honed his artistic skills. Yet for all of these accomplishments it is his visual interpretations of the Sonoran Desert for which he is still best known. Size: 15 7/8 x 19 7/8 in. Location U RACK