After studying engineering at the University of Virginia, Silva inherited his family’s chinaware business, which he successfully managed for three decades. Before taking a single formal art class, he was already proclaimed in Tennessee to be “the finest artist at the turn of the century” for his depictions of plantations, bayous, moss-hung oaks, and magnolia trees. However, it was not until age 50 that he began his second career in earnest, fully devoting himself to painting. In 1913 Silva moved to California with his wife Caroline. He built his studio on a Carmel sand dune and took up new subjects: twisted cypresses and rugged eucalyptus, dramatic seaside rock formations, and curling breakers along the foggy Monterey coast. Silva often painted en plein air, recording his scenes with rapid, colorful brushstrokes, his “modified Impressionism” tinged with moodiness, lyricism, and a touch of mysticism.