Important and historic Western landscape of Zion Canyon National Park in Utah, oil on canvas, signed in the lower left and lower right corner “F.S. Dellenbaugh”, Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh (1853-1935). The back of the canvas is marked with the number “19” as well as the side of the canvas, possibly signifying an exhibit number for the painting. Dellenbaugh spent the summer of 1903 painting Zion Canyon and the paintings were exhibited in the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Dellenbaugh wrote an article about Zion Canyon titled “A New Valley of Wonders” in the January 19o4 issue of Scribner’s Magazine. An excerpt of his description of the entrance to Zion Canyon: “One hardly knows just how to think of it. Never before has such a naked mountain of rock entered our minds. Without a shred of disguise, it’s transcendent form rises pre-eminent. There is almost nothing to compare to it. Niagara has the beauty of energy; the Grand Canyon of immensity; the Yellowstone of singularity; the Yosemite of altitude; the ocean of power; this Great Temple of eternity.” Dellenbaugh’s paintings and article, along with other previously created photographs, paintings, and reports, contributed to U.S. President William Howard Taft’s proclamation creating Mukuntuweap National Monument on July 31, 1909. In 1917, the National Park Service proposed changing the name to Zion. Frederick Dellenbaugh was both an artist and a writer. He served as an assistant topographer with Major Powell’s second expedition of the Colorado River. In 1876, he left the Southwest to study at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany, and the Academie Julien, Paris, France. He returned to the Southwest in 1884 and lived with the Hopi Indians of the Four Corners area. Dellenbaugh’s work is in the Museum of New Mexico, The University of Wyoming Art Museum, The Anchorage Museum of History and Art, The Arizona Historical Society, and the Nevada State Museum. Condition – untouched, under glass, small pinhole in sky area, original gilt frame with paint loss. 15″ x 28″ painted canvas, frame 37 3/4″ x 24 7/8″. Circa 1903.