Attractive village hillside scene by Wells Moses Sawyer, an Iowa-born artist who had Sarasota and Florida connections. He was an artist and anthropologist and noted for being the photographer on the Pepper-Hearst Expedition, which explored the dwellings of the mound-builders along the Gulf Coast of Florida in the 1890's. He was educated at the University of Florida and became a draughtsman for the U.S. Geological Survey office in Washington, D.C. By 1931 he was painting landscapes and historical buildings, and relocated to Florida in 1944. He settled in Sarasota and helped found the Sarasota art colony. His son-in-law was another Florida artist, Jerry Farnsworth. The Pepper-Hearst Expedition went to Tarpon Springs, then Key Marco, in 1896 and explored the mounds or middens created by prehistoric peoples who lived on oysters and shellfish from the Gulf waters. Key Marco was part of current-day Marco Island, just below Naples in Florida, and Sawyer was vital to the success of the expedition. The painting is signed in the lower left and has a beautiful gilt frame. The overall size is 18 3/4 x 22 13/16 in. wide and the sight size is 11 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. wide.