a good example of American Impressionism with its thickly applied paint capturing the shifting effect of light and color; Hugo Melville Fisher (1878-1946) was active in California and is best known for his seascape and marine paintings.  Born in Brooklyn, and the son of artist Hugo Anton Fisher, the Fisher family moved to Alameda, California in 1886.
Shortly after the turn of the century, Fisher traveled to Europe where he remained for the next 16 years, studying with such notable artists as Whistler, Bouguereau, Laurens, and Benjamin-Constant.  His well-received exhibitions in London and Paris helped to cement his reputation as a painter. Returning to New York in 1920 and traveling extensively throughout the world until returning to his California childhood home in 1938.