Ransome's Quarry

 

William Seltzer Rice

  1873 - 1963 (biography)

c. 1935  

watercolor 

10 7/8 x 16 7/8" image & sheet 

signed, lower left 

 

titled in another's hand, verso 

W-B22 

watercolor paper 

 

 

RRT773 

SOLD

This Alameda County, California quarry is on the Old Fish Ranch road, about 5 1/2 miles from the Oakland City Hall. It was opened in April, 1904. William Seltzer Rice used vivid and darker colors in the foreground while using a neutral intensity of cool tone colors to create contrast and depth. The focus seems at first to be placed on the trees, but Rice perfectly places the trees off centered and to the side to open space where the viewer can seek out the mountains.