This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from an original 1931 advertising poster for the Santa Fe Railroad’s “Chief” service, painted by renowned Southwest illustrator Hernando G. Villa.
The vibrant colors and detail of this classic image have been painstakingly brought back to life to preserve a great piece of history.
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
The 13"x19" and 24”x36” formats are excellent image sizes that look great as a stand-alone piece of art, or as a grouped visual statement. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom framing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online. The 24”x36” poster has a 1” white border.
A great vintage print for your home, shop, or business!
HISTORY OF THE SANTA FE CHIEF & ARTIST HERNANDO G. VILLA
The Chief was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Its route ran from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. The Chief was inaugurated as an all-Pullman limited train to supplement the road's California Limited, with a surcharge of USD $10.00 for an end-to-end trip.
The heavyweight began its first run from both ends of the line, simultaneously, on November 14, 1926, scheduled 63 hours each way between Chicago and Los Angeles, five hours faster than the California Limited. (The Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited and Golden State Limited began their extra-fare 63-hour schedules between Chicago and California the same day.)
The Chief was a success, dubbed "Extra Fast-Extra Fine-Extra Fare" though it failed to relieve traffic on the California Limited. The Chief became famous as a "rolling boudoir" for film stars and Hollywood executives. In 1954 the Chief reduced its schedule to equal its cousins, the Super Chief and El Capitan, and would ultimately drop the extra fare requirement as well.
The Chief would have been the "crown jewel" of most railroads' passenger fleets. But it did not survive the national decline in passenger demand and its last run was on May 15, 1968.
Hernando Gonzalo Villa was a renowned muralist and illustrator, born in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 1, 1881. His family moved to Los Angeles from Baja California in 1846, when this section of California area was a still part of Mexico. His mother was an amateur singer, and his father an artist with a studio on the Plaza in Los Angeles. Villa studied locally under Louise Garden-MacLeod at the Los Angeles School of Art & Design in 1905, and he later travelled to Germany to further his studies.
Villa took a teaching post at the School of Art & Design while developing a studio and doing illustrations for local publications such as the Pasadena Daily News, Town Talk, and The West Coast Magazine. He became one of the best-known artists who were regularly commissioned by the Santa Fe Railroad to create classic Western images for their travel advertisements.
Hernando Gonzalo Villa died in Los Angeles on May 7, 1952.
