Thomas Hill (California/Massachusetts, 1829-1908) oil on canvas still life painting depicting a wicker basket of flowers, sitting on a tabletop; a house fly is perched atop a rose which has fallen to the table. Signed lower right “T. Hill”. Housed in an antique, possibly original giltwood frame with carved Rococo style corner decorations and molded rabbet edge. 20″ x 24″ canvas, 28″ x 32″ framed. Mid/late 19th century. Provenance: the estate of Delle Brown, Nashville, TN. Delle Brown and her late husband Malvern Brown were, for many years, the proprietors of Trace Tavern Antiques. Biography: Thomas Hill is best known for his Western landscapes, although his still lifes also exhibit exceptional skill. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and painted in Massachusetts and New Hampshire with George Inness, Virgil Williams, Albert Bierstadt, and his brother, Edward Hill. Hill also spent time in Europe, especially France among the Barbizon painters and in the studio of Paul Meyerheim. In the 1860s, health problems convinced him to leave the cold, wet New England climate and travel to San Francisco. His panoramic views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park made him one of the most famous landscape painters of the 19th century. (source: Edan Hughes, “Artists in California, 1786-1940”). CONDITION: Painting professionally conserved in 1981 (repaired, cleaned, lined, and varnished with Damar; full conservation report available on request); overall craquelure still present with small area of delamination upper center edge. Frame has multiple losses to corner carvings and has been regilded.