Artful Players: Artistic Life in Early San FranciscoWith a handful of wealthy Gold Rush barons as indulgent patrons, an active community of artists appeared in nineteenth-century San Francisco almost overnight. A subculture of artistic brilliance and social experimentation was the result--in essence, a decades-long revelry that finally ended with the 1906 earthquake. Witness Jules Tavernier, hungry and in debt, accepting a stuffed peacock and two old dueling pistols in payment for a Yosemite landscape; Mark Twain as reluctant art critic; Oscar Wilde outdrinking his hosts at the Bohemian Club, declaring he had never before seen "so many well-dressed, well-fed, business-like looking Bohemians." Prolific production of some of America's greatest paintings developed into a distinctly California style. Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith were among the many artists who documented Yosemite Valley and the state's other natural wonders. Grace Hudson's paintings are still considered some of the finest records of Native American culture. |
Common terms and phrases
Academy of Design Albert Bierstadt Alta California American Art April Art Jottings Art Notes Born Calif California Advertiser California Art Union California Historical Society California School color critics Crocker Art Museum Elaine Emil Carlsen Europe exhibition Exposition Franciscan Francisco Art Association Francisco Evening Post Francisco News Letter Frenzeny Hearst Art Gallery held Hill's Honolulu Ibid Jules Tavernier landscape later Letter and California London Ludlow M.H. de Young March Mark Hopkins Mathews matter medal Monterey Museum Munich Museum of Art Museum of California nude Oakland Museum Oil on canvas Overland Monthly Painter painting Palette Club Paris Salon picture portrait returned to San Rosenthal's Sacramento Samuel Marsden Samuel Marsden Brookes San Francisco Art San Francisco Call San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco Examiner scene School of Design SFAA showed sketching Street Studied Tavernier's Theodore Wores Thomas Hill Toby Rosenthal Virgil Williams William Keith wrote York Yosemite Young Memorial Museum