JOHN FERY - Artist of Glacier National Park & The American West

"It is for everyone who appreciates Western landscape, loves Glacier Park, and wants to know more about a painter who impressed his vision on generations of travelers called west by the mountains. All aboard for Fery-land." - From the Foreword by Brian W. Dippie In John Fery's lifetime, more Americans saw his art in person than almost any other artist. Train depots, hotels, universities, ships, travel agencies, and corporations all proudly displayed his magnificent paintings. What was not familiar was the man behind these impressive landscape paintings not only of Glacier National Park but also many other vistas of the American West. This biography makes use of 284 illustrations that document a remarkable life while also presenting the people and times in which Fery lived. More than that, it explains in detail the relationship between John Fery and his main patron, Louis W. Hill of Great Northern Railway fame. Born Johann Levy in 1859 in Hungary, Fery was smitten early on with painting the Alps. After the death of both of his parents when he was just a teenager, Johann sought formal art training in Vienna, Munich, and Düsseldorf. By the early 1880s he had changed his name to John Fery and was hired on by German immigrant painters to work on cycloramas in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Subsequently, along with his French wife Mary, he traveled through the Hudson River Valley in New York; lived in Cleveland for a while; explored Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and eventually located to booming Duluth, Minnesota where he worked on a mural for the Fitgar Brewery. In 1895 it was there that a young Louis W. Hill working for his famous father, James J. Hill, fell in love with Fery's art. Alongside Peterson's engrossing tale of the life of this great painter, the 284 illustrations offer an unprecedented selection of Fery's works-a view at once panoramic and intimate.