1920's Colorado Mountain Landscape Oil Painting. John Aubrey Speer. Longs Peak?

For sale is a sweet early Colorado mountainous landscape painting by the early Colorado artist John Aubrey Speer (1895 - 1955) This painting has the early McPhee & McGinnity Paint Company label on it so this was painted in the early 1920's when he worked for them. Making this one of his earlier paintings. We believe this to be a Colorado scene. Possibly Longs Peak but we are uncertain. We sell it as a western mountain landscape. Quite a charming scene. Speer was not considered a well schooled fine art landscape artist but his paintings have become cherished works for collectors of early Colorado art. Condition: Good. An area of varnish scraping surface loss to the top as pictured in our detailed pictures. The painting having a highly yellowed varnish layer that could easily be cleaned. The yellow does give it an warm antique aura however. Measurements Framed - 11 1/8" x 14 5/8" Artist board - 9 1/2" 13" John Aubrey Speer was born in Denver, Colorado in 1895. He first appeared in the City Directory in 1909 as a painter, sold Epson board and subsequently was listed as a brakeman for the Union Pacific Railroad. In the early 1920's Speer was a "Window Artist" for the McPhee & McGinnity Paint Company on Arapaho Street where he competed with A. L. Browning who worked for the rival McMurtry Manufacturing Company, also on Arapaho Street. There is evidence that during that period he also did work for the Lincoln Paint and Color Co. of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Acme White Lead and Color Works of Detroit, Michigan. He most likely set up these outlets while working for the railroad as he could ride on a pass. After Speer left McPhee, he moved to Englewood, a southern suburb of Denver where he lived at 4079 So. Acoma Street. He then began stamping that address on the back of his paintings. He painted various sized canvases, ranging from postcard size to large landscapes. The artist experimented with using a palette knife to create his works. He continued to paint in the Denver area through the late 1940's. J. A. Speer died in 1955 in Denver and was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery; his wife, Geraldine, survived him. Today his work is regarded as part of Colorado histor