Original 1952 Alabama Hills Landscape Painting by Carter – Lone Pine CA

Experience the rugged splendor of California’s Eastern Sierra with this commanding original 1952 plein air landscape painting, signed “Carter.” Capturing the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California, with the foothills of Mt. Whitney rising beyond, the work places the viewer directly inside a vast high-desert scene — open road, sunlit earth, blue mountain shadows, rolling clouds, and that unmistakable California light.

Large in scale and powerful in presence, this oil on board composition moves well beyond decorative landscape painting. Carter’s brushwork brings atmosphere, distance, and movement to the terrain, balancing broad cinematic space with painterly detail. The road draws the eye deep into the composition, while the cloud-filled sky gives the piece a sense of weather, drama, and Western grandeur.

The location adds to its significance. Alabama Hills and Lone Pine occupy a legendary place in California visual culture — a landscape long associated with Western film history, desert travel, Mt. Whitney, and the enduring romance of the American West. This is not a generic mountain view; it is a specific and highly evocative California place, painted with scale, confidence, and feeling.

Collector’s Note:
This is an unusually strong and large-scale example of George Carter’s Western landscape work. At four feet wide, the painting has the presence of a major statement piece, while still carrying the immediacy and hand of a mid-century plein air work. Signed, dated 1952, beautifully composed, and preserved in excellent original vintage condition, this is the kind of painting that anchors a room and holds its value through subject, scale, age, condition, and atmosphere.

Artist: Signed “Carter”
Title: Alabama Hills / Lone Pine, CA
Medium: Oil on board
Date: 1952
Painting Dimensions: 48" W x 36" H
Frame Dimensions: 57" W X 45" H x 2" D
Condition: Excellent original vintage condition
Framing: Solid wood frame.
Provenance: Private collection