Edgar Payne's Sierra Nevada paintings

Payne first went into the Sierra Nevada in 1916 and returned to the range for the rest of his life. His high-country lakes, granite peaks and pack trains are the paintings most closely associated with his name.

First trips and a lifelong subject

After visiting the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, Payne made his first trip to the Sierra Nevada the following year. Wikipedia, drawing on the 2012 retrospective catalogue, describes the trip as "a big moment in his life," after which he "would return again and again to paint the unspoiled Sierra." Even after he settled in Hollywood in the 1930s he spent long periods painting in the mountains, and he produced a documentary film about them, Sierra Journey. A lake high in Humphreys Basin is named Payne Lake in his honor.

Places in the titles

Titles recorded in museum and auction catalogues show how widely he worked in the range: Fifth Lake (Smithsonian American Art Museum, about 1928), First Lake, Near Big Pine, California and Fourth Lake, Big Pine Canyon in the Big Pine Lakes of the eastern Sierra, View of the Glacier & Palisades, Payne Lake, Sierras, and View Across Dragon Lake, Looking Southwest, Kings Canyon National Park. The Langson Orange County Museum of Art at UC Irvine describes its Snow in the High Sierras as showing "Payne's modulation of color to produce atmospheric depth," and notes that the Sierra Nevada "was a favorite."

In the market

Large Sierra canvases are among Payne's most valuable works at auction. Public results include View of the Glacier & Palisades (40 × 50 in.) at $402,500 at the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction and View Across Dragon Lake (25 × 30 in.) at $62,812.50 at Bonhams in 2021. Size, condition and quality account for much of that range. See auction records and, if you own one, what affects an Edgar Payne's value.

Sierra paintings sold by Steven Stern Fine Arts

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Own a Sierra painting by Payne? Here is how to sell it.

Sources

1. 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.
2. Smithsonian American Art Museum, artist record "Edgar Payne" and Fifth Lake, ca. 1928 (1957.10.6). americanart.si.edu/artist/edgar-payne-3715.
3. 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.
4. Coeur d'Alene Art Auction, "Edgar Payne – past auction highlights" (includes Solitude's Enchantment, 1921, 43 × 43 in., $476,000; View of the Glacier & Palisades, 40 × 50 in., $402,500; Land of the Navajo, 40 × 50 in., $363,000). cdaartauction.com.
5. Coeur d'Alene Art Auction, 2024, lot 37, First Lake, Near Big Pine, California, oil on canvas, 25 × 30 in., "signed lower left," with a gallery label on the verso. cdaartauction.com.
6. Bonhams, California Art, 3 Aug. 2021, lot 82, View Across Dragon Lake, Looking Southwest, Kings Canyon National Park, signed 'EDGAR PAYNE' (lower left), with a study of Navajos on horseback on the reverse, oil on canvas, 25 × 30 in., sold for $62,812.50; provenance notes an April 11, 2017 Bonhams sale "as 'Sierra Lake Beneath Glaciers'". bonhams.com.