Frederick Billing

born Eschwege, Germany, 1835; died Santa Cruz, California, 1914

BiographyGerman-born Frederick Billing had always been interested in art but his father forbade him to paint. Billing instead became a businessman in his hometown of Eschwege before he moved to Brooklyn around 1856. He enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and served in the Civil war with his brother. He also began to paint landscapes. Billing was never formally trained and worked as an amateur throughout his career. He moved to Salt Lake City in the late 1870s for his health and went into the mining business. He also began to paint scenes of Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Idaho. He was a friend of Thomas Moran and his brother Peter and would accompany them on painting expeditions. The three collaborated on the painting Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. Billing often worked from photographs and based at least one of his works on an etching by Thomas Moran. He moved to California in 1885, where he painted scenes of the Yosemite Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains. He eventually settled in Santa Cruz, on the Wilhelmina Ranch, where he lived the rest of his life.

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