Painter, lithographer, illustrator, muralist. Born in Speicher, Switzerland on January 15, 1886. Buff was trained as a lace designer at the School of Arts and Crafts in St. Gallen, Switzerland and at age 18 studied briefly in Munich. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1905 and, since he spoke no English, moved to Wisconsin where there was a large Swiss population. There he worked as a sheepherder before moving to Los Angeles in 1906. While supporting himself as a house painter, he regularly made sketching trips into the deserts of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, and in his leisure began painting desert landscapes. He developed a lifelong friendship with Maynard Dixon who often accompanied him on these sketching trips. In 1922 he married Mary Marsh who was an artist and assistant curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She gave up painting to write children's books which her husband illustrated. A self-taught artist, he created stark mountain and desert landscapes. In a long and prodigious career, he bridged the coloration and brushwork of impressionism with the abstraction of modern art. Buff was a resident of Pasadena and Laguna Hills where he died on March 11, 1975. His work won many awards in Southern California exhibitions.
Price: $57.50
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