BIOGRAPHY:

Watercolorist. Born in Kent, England in 1864.

Vachell and his two brothers moved to California in 1881 and settled on a ranch near San Luis Obispo. (Avid sportsmen, the Vachells are credited with introducing polo to the West Coast.)

He was active in Monterey as early as 1888 but it was 1905 before he built his home in Carmel. Having studied art briefly in Italy, he was a sketching partner and close friend of Sydney Yard and Mary DeNeale Morgan. He was a force in Carmel's civic and artistic affairs through the 1920s. Vachell was given the distinction of having a pine tree named for him after saving it from destruction; it still stands in the middle of the intersection of Lincoln and 13th streets.

His luminous watercolors include garden scenes, landscapes, and coastals. Leaving Carmel in the late 1920s, he died in Exmouth, England on June 1, 1933.