Edwin Deakin was born in born Sheffield, England in 1838. A landscape and Spanish mission painter of scenes in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. He died in Berkeley, California in 1923.

Deakin received his art education in England and established himself as an architectural painter in England and France. He immigrated to Chicago and earned his living painting memorial portraits of Civil War heroes. In 1870, he opened a studio in San Francisco.

In the early 1870s Deakin turned his focus to painting landscape scenes at Lake Tahoe, the Green River in Wyoming, and the Wasatch Range of Utah. Great Salt Lake Near Black Rock Garfield Pier and Pavilion is an example of his work. Deakin's work is included in exhibitions at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco (1940), The Oakland Museum (1962, 1971), and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (1981). 

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

Edwin Deakin (1838-1923), was an itinerant painter of small landscape and still-life scenes in oils. He was born in Sheffield, England, and immigrated to the United States sometime before the Civil War. He lived in Chicago for awhile, but hearing of the wonders of California he and his wife moved to the West Coast in 1870. The Deakins then established themselves in Berkley, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Edwin Deakin eventually became a member of the art association there in 1879. He also became a specialist in the painting of the twenty-one uniquely beautiful Spanish missions of California, established by the Franciscans in early days, and two of his paintings became known internationally when he competed in the Paris Salon. Deakin also painted elsewhere, and in 1883 he was in Salt Lake City where he spent time sketching and painting scenes in the surrounding canyons, views of various mills in the area and other landscape settings.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah.

Books

Axelrod, Alan. Art of the Golden West. New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1990.

Baird, Joseph Armstrong, Jr. Views of Yosemite The Last Stance of the Romantic Landscape. Fresno, CA: Fresno Arts Center, 1982.

Coran, James L., and Walter A. Nelson-Rees. If Pictures Could Talk: Stories About California Paintings in Our Collection. Oakland, CA: WIM, 1989.

Chelette, Iona and Katherine Hough. California Grandeur and Genre. Palm Springs, CA: Palm Springs Desert Museum, 1991.

Crocker Art Museum, and Richard V. West. Crocker Art Museum: Handbook of Paintings. Sacramento, CA: The Museum, 1979.

Davenport, Ray. Davenport's Art Reference. Ventura, CA: Davenport's Art Reference, 2001.

Dawdy, Doris. Artists of the American West A Biographical Dictionary. 3 Vols. Chicago, IL: Sage Books, 1985.

Deakin, Edwin. The Twenty-One Missions of California; Reproductions from Printings by Edwin Deakin. 4th ed. Berkeley, CA: Murdock Press, 1901.

Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson. ed. The Artists Bluebook. Scottsdale, AZ: Ask ART.com, 2003.

Earle, Helen L. Biographical Sketches of American Artists. Charleston, SC: Garnier, 1972.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975. 3 Vols. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art Artists Active 1898-1947. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1985.

Graham, F. Lanier. Three Centuries American Painting M. H. deYoung and Palace of Legion of Honor. San Francisco, CA: Recorder Sunset Press, 1971.

Gerdts, William H. American Still Life. New York, NY: Praeger, 1971.

Gerdts, William. Art Across America (West). Vol.3. New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1990.

Gerdts, William H. Painters of the Humble Truth American Still Life 1801-1939. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1981.

Hills, Patricia. The American Frontier Images and Myths. New York, NY: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1973.

Hjalmarson, Birgitta. Artful Players: Artistic Life In Early San Francisco. Los Angeles, CA: Balcony Press, 1999.

Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California: 1786-1940. Sacramento, CA: Crocker Art Museum, 2002.

Mahood, Ruth and Paul Mills. A Gallery of California Mission Paintings by Edwin Deakin. Los Angeles, CA: W. Ritchie Press, 1966.

Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge. Index of Artists International Biographical. 2 Vols. New York, NY: Smith, 1948.

Moure, Nancy, and Dustin Wall. California Art: 450 Years of Painting & Other Media. Los Angeles, CA: Dustin Publications, 1998.

Oakland Museum. Tropical: Tropical Scenes by the 19th Century Painters of California. Oakland, CA: Oakland Museum, 1972.

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, l999.

Oman, Richard G., and Robert O. Davis. Images of Faith: Art of the Latter-Day Saints. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Co., 1995.

Fielding, Mantle, and Glenn B. Opitz. Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers. Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1986.

Orr-Cahill, Christina. The Art of California Selected Works/ Oakland Museum. Oakland, CA: Oakland Museum, 1984.

Samuels, Peggy, and Harold Samuels. Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.

Spangenberg, Helen. Yesterday's Artists on the Monterey Peninsula. Monterey, CA: Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, 1976.

Swingle, John. Edwin Deakin, 1838-1923; an Exhibition of Paintings & Sketches, April 22-May 11, 1963. Berkeley, CA: N.p., 1963.

Van Nostrand, Jeanne. The First Hundred Years of Painting in California 1775-1875. San Francisco, CA: J. Howell-Books, 1980.

Vincent, Stephen. O California! 19th & Early 20th Century Landscapes. San Francisco, CA: Bedford Arts, 1990.

Zellman, Michael David. 300 Years Years of American Art. Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 1987.

Periodicals

Gerdts, William H. "William & Abigail Gerdts Collection." American Art Review, April 1998.

Kotz, Marchy Lyn. "The Verdict." ARTnews, October 1999.

Robinson, Rebecca. "Fine Shopping Squared." Art & Antiques, October 2000.