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Photo of Grace Griffith, circa 1905	"Spring Shower, Valley of the Moon"	"Early Spring"
Sheep, Hills and Eucalyptus	Meadow Oaks triptych
Grazing Sheep Sonoma, 1924	Woodland Path	"Mossy Oaks and Poppies"
Pasture Path	Landscape at Twilight	Dune Path, 1913
Poplars, Path and Fence	California Oak and Sheep	Poplar Trio and Brook
Oak and Stream	Mossy Oak and Spring	Pasture and Eucalyptus

Grace Myrtle Allison Griffith was born in Santa Rosa, California.  Her father, Nathaniel A. Griffith, was a successful pioneer fruit rancher. In 1883, he purchased 80 acres on Laguna Road west of Santa Rosa which contained a year round spring fed stream. He introduced the Gravenstein apple to the Sebastopol region.  He was a close friend of famed horticulturist Luther Burbank. Grace did paintings and illustrations for Luther Burbank of his hybrid fruits. Aside from raising apples, he and his wife Ida raised and encouraged three remarkable and talented daughters: Grace, a gifted painter, Alice, an avid and active enthusiast of nature, and Nell, a gifted and well published California poet.

Portrait of Nathaniel A. Griffith by Vera Del Sticker, 1896. courtesy of the artist's family

Grace studied art in San Francisco with Lorenzo P. Latimer.  Her works are mostly landscapes of Sonoma and Marin Counties.  She was married early in her life to Charles B. Allison, and for a time painted under the name Allison Griffith.  In 1919, the family farmhouse burned and Grace lost many of her early works.  She and her sister Alice opened an art studio in Hawaii, and remained as working artists there for two years.  It was in Hawaii that she gained her first real recognition.  Nine of her paintings were published in the Magazine of Hawaii.

Family farmhouse which burned in 1919

While visiting Europe, she had opportunities to exhibit her work, became a member of the Royal Watercolor Society of London, and her works were shown throughout England and Scotland.  In the 1920's, her works were exhibited at the California State Fair and in exhibitions of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists.  Solo shows of her work were held at the Print Rooms in San Francisco, the Claremont Hotel Art Galleries in Berkeley, the Kanst Galleries in Los Angeles, and Gump's Gallery in San Francisco. Grace married Archibald O. Harris in 1939 and the couple settled in Berkeley where they remained until "Archie" died in 1950. Grace then returned then to her family's farm where she remained with her sister Alice until her death in 1955.  Grace and her family are noted in the History of Sonoma County, 1926.

Sources: Discussions with the artist's nephew-in-law and great nephew, Bill and Ned Coons of Sebastopol, California; Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West, 1998; Edan Milton Hughes, Artists in California 1786 - 1940, 3d ed.; History of Sonoma County, 1926. Back to top of page