Phil Sawyer (1877-1949) American, Watercolor. 1925 painting of Eze, France, an enchanting medieval hilltop village on the Riviera. Signed, inscribed, and dated lower left. 

Overall: 17 1/8 X 13 1/8 in. 

Sight: 10 1/4 X 6 3/4 in. 

#2800 . 

Phil Sawyer was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1877. He studied at the Art Institute, then Purdue University, and finally at Yale School of Fine Arts. In 1900 he traveled to Paris, France to study under Leon Bonnat, and visited there for much of the rest of his life, regularly crossing the Atlantic for various art exhibitions and solo shows. In the 1910s he traveled in the Southwest United States, and paintings from these travels include Indian figures and landscapes in Arizona at the Hopi and Navajo reservations.  He also stopped to visit J.L. Hubbell at his trading post at Ganado, Arizona, and several paintings from this meeting can be found in the Santa Fe Railway Collection. He became well known for his striking murals, and was active in Detroit, Michigan as a member of the Society of Independent Artists in the 1920s. In the 1930s he lived in Tiskilwa, Illinois, where his output began to diminish, and finally settled in Clearwater, Florida, where he died in 1949. His diverse works can be found in countless museums around the country, particularly in Florida and in a permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian.