Edgar Payne in museums and exhibitions

Where Payne's paintings can be seen, and the major exhibitions of his work.

Museum collections

• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.: Fifth Lake, about 1928 (1957.10.6). [1]
• Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California: the museum grew out of the Laguna Beach Art Association, which Payne helped form and led as first president; it also holds Elsie Palmer Payne's 1952 bronze relief portrait of him. [2][3]
• UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California: Snow in the High Sierras (acquired 2021) and, according to the museum, eight other paintings by Payne. [4]
• Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City (cited by Wikipedia from the museum's collection database). [3]

Wikipedia's list of public collections also includes the Crocker Art Museum, the Springville Museum of Art, the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Weisman Art Museum and others. [3] Check with each museum before visiting, as works are not always on view.

Exhibitions

• Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey, a career retrospective of nearly 100 paintings and drawings with photographs and studio objects, curated by Scott A. Shields and organized by the Pasadena Museum of California Art: Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, Feb. 11–May 6, 2012; Pasadena Museum of California Art, June 3–Oct. 14, 2012; Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Dec. 1, 2012–Mar. 24, 2013. Catalogue: 272 pages, Pomegranate, 2012. [5][6]
• Masters of Light: Plein-Air Painting in California 1890–1930, The Irvine Museum, international tour 2002–2004, included Monument Valley, Riverbed. [7]
• During his lifetime, Payne exhibited at the California Art Club (1918–1921), the California State Fair (gold medal 1918, silver 1919), Cannell & Chaffin Galleries (1920) and Stendahl Galleries (1921–1922), and received an honorable mention at the Paris Salon in 1923. [3]

Further reading

• Scott A. Shields et al., Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey (2012).
• Edgar Payne, Composition of Outdoor Painting (1941; many later editions).
• Jean Stern, Masters of Light: Plein Air Painting in California 1890–1930 (Irvine, 2002).

Sources

1. Smithsonian American Art Museum, artist record "Edgar Payne" and Fifth Lake, ca. 1928 (1957.10.6). americanart.si.edu/artist/edgar-payne-3715.
2. Laguna Art Museum, "Our History" (1918 founding of the Laguna Beach Art Association; 1929 gallery by Myron Hunt). lagunaartmuseum.org/history.
3. Wikipedia, "Edgar Payne" (citing Scott A. Shields et al., Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey, 2012; the 1900 U.S. Census; American Art Annual). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Payne, accessed Oct. 2026.
4. UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art, Edgar Payne, Snow in the High Sierras (acquired 2021; "Langson IMCA's collection includes eight other paintings by Payne"). langson.uci.edu/high-payne.
5. Traditional Fine Arts Organization, "Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey" (Crocker Art Museum press material, 2012). tfaoi.org/aa/10aa/10aa40.htm.
6. Scott A. Shields, Patricia Trenton, Lisa N. Peters, Peter H. Hassrick and Jean Stern, Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey (Pasadena Museum of California Art / Pomegranate, 2012), 272 pp., ISBN 9780764960536. Library record: wyldcatalog.org.
7. Bonhams, California and Western Paintings & Sculpture, 2 Aug. 2016, lot 78, Monument Valley, Riverbed, signed 'Edgar Payne' (lower left), titled on the stretcher bar, sold for $323,000; exhibited in The Irvine Museum's Masters of Light international tour, 2002–2004. bonhams.com.