Old Locals and Notables

EXHIBIT JUNE 19 TO END OF AUGUST - from our collection
Old Locals & a Few (Other) Notables
celebrating Northern California's artistic heritage

A few were born here. Most came to California during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drawn to a fresh and amazing new land of promise. Collectively, their talent and skill springs from artistic plein air impressionist traditions learned in the best schools and from some of the most famed masters in Europe and the Eastern United States. They came to California and interpreted its natural beauty and wonders. Below are the paintings exhibited in this show. Each thumbnail photo links to the artist's page on our site with expanded biographical information.
William Weaver Armstrong 1862 - 1906 Harry Cassie Best 1863 - 1936 Alphonso Herman Broad 1851 - 1930 John Appleton Brown 1844 - 1902 Alice Brown Chittenden 1859 - 1944 Gordon Coutts 1868 - 1937 Alice Hunt Curtis 1858 - 1957 Carl Dahlgren 1841 - 1920 Richard DeTreville 1864 - 1929 Horace Wolfe Duesbury 1851 - 1904	Henrietta Riddell Fish 1856 - 1925 Hugo Anton Fisher 1854 - 1916 Charles S. Graham 1852 - 1911 Andrew J. Granville 1872 - 1936 Grace Myrtle Allison Griffith 1885 - 1955 Nels Hagerup 1864 - 1922 Elizabeth Hoen 1868 - 1955 Ransome Gillet Holdredge 1836 - 1899 Carl Henrik Jonnevold 1856-1955 Frederick Stymetz Lamb 1863 - 1928 Lorenzo Palmer Latimer 1857 - 1941	Gustave Liljestrom 1880 - 1958 Nellie Moody (19th century) William Frederic Ritschel 1864 - 1949 Benigino Yamero Ruiz 1880 - 1929 Marius Schmidt 1868 - 1938 Meyer Straus 1831 - 1905 James Everett Stuart 1852 - 1941 Manuel Valencia 1856 - 1935 Napoleon Primo Vallejo 1850 - 1923 George Arnold Weeden 1869 - 1939 Jack Wisby 1869 - 1940

William Weaver Amrstrong 1862-1906			Harry Cassie Best 1863-1936

William was a partner in a carriage painting business on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland where he also maintained his studio. He made painting excursions to Santa Cruz and throughout northern California to the Oregon border. In spite of parental objections, he married an Indian girl. He died of TB at the age of 44. Back to the Top			Harry and his older brother Arthur William Best (1859-1935) came to San Francisco in 1895. Arthur began the Best Art School in San Francisco. Younger Harry visited Yosemite with artist friend Thaddeus Welch. Harry was impressed with the Sierra, and built his home in Yosemite Valley. He is mostly known for his Yosemite scenes, but traveled throughout California, Hawaii and the west. He is the father-in-law of photographer Ansel Adams. Back to the Top
Alphonso Herman Broad 1851 - 1930			John Appleton Brown 1844-1902

Berkeley resident Alphonso Broad accompanied his artist friend William Keith on many sketching excursions. He was active in Berkeley's civic life, and was elected to the board of trustees, and was the Berkeley Town Marshall and ex-officio Superintendent of Streets. Professionally, he was a designer and builder, and built Berkeley landmarks; the original Whittier, LeConte and Columbus Schools. Back to the Top			From his home state of Massachusetts, young John Brown studied art in Paris with Emile Lambinet, Camille Corot and Charles-Francois Daubigny. Back home in Boston, Barbizon scenes were popular, and Brown did many of apple orchards, gaining him the nick-name Apple Blossom Brown. He painted throughout New England, and spent summers on the islet of Appledore off New Hampshire with other artists including Childe Hassam. Back to the Top
Alice Brown Chittenden 1859-1944			Gordon Coutts 1868-1937

Alice studied at the San Francisco School of Design. She remained in San Francisco her entire life. She taught art at her alma mater from 1897 until 1940. She is famous for her oil paintings of wild flowers, and painted mostly in Marin County. She was a botanical student as well, and she painted 350 varieties of flowers in 256 studies. She exhibited widely, including the San Francisco Art Association, the Bohemian Club, and the Artistes Francaise in Paris. Back to the Top			A native of Scotland, Gordon Coutts studied painting at the Julian Academy in Paris. There he met and married Alice Gray of Australia. From Paris, they painted and taught in both Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. After several years, the couple spent some time in Europe where Gordon exhibited in the Royal Academy in London. From there, they moved to San Francisco, where Gordon was active in the Bohemian Club. Coutts was in Africa when Alice divorced him in 1918. In 1925, he moved to Palm Springs due to tuberculosis, where he continued his active artistic life. Back to the Top
Alice Hunt Curtis 1858-1957			Carl Dahlgren 1841-1920

Alice Hunt Curtis lived to be 99. She painted extensively throughout Northern California. She exhibited her work at the the Golden Gate Park Museum in 1915, the Oakland Art Gallery in 1917, and the DeYoung Museum in 1928. She was a member of the Society for Sanity in Art. Back to the Top			Carl Dahlgren and his artist brother Marius left their native Denmark and moved to the United States in 1872. At first, they settled in Salt Lake City, but after six years, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. They lived in Oakland and painted throughout northern California. Today, their paintings hang in close proximity in the Oakland Museum. Carl is known as "the painter of light." Back to the Top
Richard DeTreville 1864-1929			Horace Wolfe Duesbury 1851-1904

At age twenty-eight, Richard DeTreville moved to California from his native South Carolina. He settled in Stockton where he established a small newspaper called Det's Magazine. At age 46, he moved to San Francisco in 1910. There, he painted and worked as a cartoonist for the Park Presidio News. He was a prolific artist, painting numerous landscapes of familiar California scenery. Back to the Top			At age twenty-five, young Horace Duesbury made his way from Sheffield, England to San Francisco. At his busy Market Street studio, he painted portraits of the local citizenry, and did some landscapes and still lifes. From 1879 - 1886, he lived in Portland, but returned to San Francisco and Alameda, California until he died of heart failure in 1904 at the age of fifty-three. His works have been displayed by the DeYoung Museum, the California Historical Society, and his portrait of Chief Justice August L. Rhodes of the California Supreme Court hangs in the San Jose Historical Museum. Back to the Top
Henrietta Riddell Fish 1856-1925			Hugo Anton Fisher 1854-1916

Henrietta was born in 1856 in Benicia, located where the Sacramento River meets San Francisco Bay. Henrietta's parents came to California during the Gold Rush, and remained to raise their family. She graduated from Benicia's Young Ladies Seminary (which today has become Mills College in Oakland), and taught there in 1879-1880. At that time, she kept exotic pets on the family estate such as snakes, alligators, and peacocks. She pursued her art studies at the School of Design in San Francisco, and remained an active painter the rest of her life. She exhibited her work at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco between 1878 - 1894. Her work was also exhibited at the Women's Building at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. Back to the Top			A grandson and son of artists, Hugo Anton Fisher continued the family line by having two artist sons of his own, Hugo Melville Fisher and Harrison Fisher. He was born in Czechoslovakia and came to the US at age 20 in 1874 and lived in New York City for a time, and today is also thought of as a Hudson River School painter. He and his wife moved to Alameda, CA in 1886. He established a studio in San Francisco, and while commuting on the ferryboat ride to the studio painted scenes of marshes and local landscapes, often featuring dairy cattle. He had a studio in Hawaii in 1896. He was well liked by the critics on both coasts. Like William Keith and other Bay Area artists of the time, Hugo Anton Fisher lost many paintings in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Back to the Top
Charles S. Graham 1852 - 1911			Andrew J. Granville 1872 - 1936

By the time Charles Graham was 27, he was an established illustrator. At that time, he began a fifteen year relationship with Harper’s Weekly. His work appeared in almost every issue during those years, giving Charles an opportunity to witness a variety of fascinating events. Between the years of 1880 - 1889, he traveled the west doing drawings for his old employer, the railroads. In 1887, he published a drawing of Yellowstone in Harper’s Weekly. As an artist, Graham was not a romantic and did not like artistically glorified views of nature’s grandeur. He preferred views of men taming the west. He was an adventurer as well as an artist. In 1893, he freelanced, doing drawings for the New York Herald, the Chicago Tribune, and his last contribution to Harper’s Weekly was from Cuba in 1898. From 1893 through 1896, Graham called California home, and was a member of Northern California’s Bohemian Club. Back to the Top			Andrew J Granville was a life long San Franciscan. He worked as a paint salesman for Bass-Heuter Paint Company, and painted landscapes in his leisure time. Back to the Top
Grace Myrtle Allison Griffith 1885 - 1955			Nels Hagerup 1864 - 1922

Grace was born in Sebastopol, California. She studied with San Francisco's Lorenzo P. Latimer but developed her own unique style. She is known mostly for watercolor landscapes of Sonoma and Marin Counties. Her father, Nathaniel A. Griffith, introduced the Gravenstein apple to Sebastopol. He was a close friend of famed horticulturist Luther Burbank, for whom Grace did paintings and illustrations. Grace and her sister Alice opened an art studio in Hawaii, and remained as working artists there for two years. It was in Hawaii that she gained her first real recognition. Nine of her paintings were published in the Magazine of Hawaii. While visiting Europe, she had opportunities to exhibit her work, became a member of the Royal Watercolor Society of London, and her works were shown throughout England and Scotland. In the 1920's, her works were exhibited at the California State Fair and in exhibitions of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists. Solo shows of her work were held at the Print Rooms in San Francisco, the Claremont Hotel Art Galleries in Berkeley, the Kanst Galleries in Los Angeles, and Gump's Gallery in San Francisco. Back to the Top			Nels (Nielsen) Hagerup created stunning seascapes, mostly scenes off of San Francisco. He was the product of an artistic Norwegian family which included famed composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg. He was born in 1864, and as a teen studied art at the Royal Academy in Berlin and later in Copenhagen with Carl Locher. At age 18, he came to America, working as a merchant seaman. He settled in Portland, Oregon in 1882 where he later became a founder of the Portland Art Association in 1895. In Portland, Nels married his artist wife, Harriet Marie Hageman Hagerup (1851 - 1918). They moved to San Francisco in 1892 and established a home at 1224 46th Avenue in the Sunset District, less than a block from Golden Gate Park and three blocks from Ocean Beach. To support his family, Nels worked as a stevedore. When not at work, he often walked to the beach and painted, and he is well known for his sand dunes, ships, and marine scenes and sunsets. Back to the Top
Elizabeth Hoen 1868 - 1955			Ransome Gillet Holdredge 1836 - 1899

Elizabeth (Lizbeth) Hoen was born in Santa Rosa, California, and is known for her watercolor landscapes. She studied with Lorenzo P. Latimer. Elizabeth's father, Berthold (Barney) Hoen, is part of Sonoma County history. He purchased land from the Carillo land grants (owned by the mother of General Vallejo's wife and her brother Julio) which later became Santa Rosa's downtown area. He helped lay out the plan for the city of Santa Rosa. In 1917, she exhibited at the San Francisco Art Association. Her works are included in the collection of the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, California, and in the Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa. Elizabeth kept a studio in Los Angeles. She died at the Santa Rosa Hotel in 1955. Back to the Top			Ransome Holdredge was born in New York City in 1836. He came to San Francisco in the 1850’s via the isthmus of Panama and worked as a draftsman at the Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo. He took many painting excursions from the Bay Area, many to Yosemite, and his early paintings were in the realistic style of the Hudson River School. In 1874, he went to Paris and was impressed with the Barbizon artists. Upon his return to San Francisco, he changed style. He was highly successful, receiving rave reviews in local papers, and was considered by many to be better than his well known contemporary, William Keith. He traveled throughout the west, living with various Indian tribes. He was a field artist for Schribner’s and was with Major Reno during Custer’s last stand. He was a cofounder of the San Francisco Art Association, and was a member of the Bohemian Club. His works are in the collections of the Bohemian Club, the Oakland Museum, the Orange County Museum, the California Historical Society, the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, and the collection of the Oregon Historical Society. Back to the Top
Carl Henrik Jonnevold 1856-1955			Frederick Stymetz Lamb 1863 - 1928

Carl Henrik Jonnevold was born in Norway in 1856. He came to America during the 1880s. He established his San Francisco studio near 16th and California Streets which he maintained for years. He lived in Paris (and Munich) in the first decade of the 20th century. His paintings thereafter took on aspects of 19th-century French genre and landscape painting, a style suited to Jonnevold's representational approach to landscape. He was primarily a painter of the California landscape, with special emphasis on marine subjects (waves breaking on a rocky shore) and mountain vistas. Back to the Top			For health reasons, Frederick Stymetz Lamb came to the San Francisco Bay Area at age 59. He lived in Berkeley and had a summer residence along the Mendocino Coast. He received his art training at the Art Student's League in New York where he studied with William Sartain and James Caroll Beckwith, and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris with Lefebvre and Boulanger. In New York, he was known as a muralist and stained-glass designer, and was involved in Architectural preservation. He exhibited his works at the World's Columbian Expo in Chicago in 1893, received a gold medal at the Atlanta Expo of 1895, and won a medal at the Paris Expo in 1900. He designed windows in the Church of the Messiah in New York and Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. Back to the Top
Lorenzo Palmer Latimer 1857 - 1941			Gustave Liljestrom 1880 - 1958

Born in Placer County, California, Lorenzo Latimer became a prolific California landscape painter and highly respected teacher. He is best known for his watercolor paintings of picturesque views of northern California including giant redwoods, Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. His parents failed at prospecting gold and moved to Santa Rosa. There, young Lorenzo grew up among the vineyards of Windsor, and after his father became a Superior Court judge. As a young artist, he became friends with and drinking companion of the famed Jules Tavernier and David Hitchcock. Although helpful in his artistic career, he did not take well to drinking, and this association limited his productive output. In time Latimer moved beyond the friendship, and found success and fulfillment instructing young artists. Among his students were Grace Allison Griffith, Bertha Luce Emery, and Elizabeth Hoen. In the earthquake of 1906, Latimer lost many of his works as did most San Francisco artists. He relocated to Berkeley where he maintained a residence until his death in 1941 at the age of 85. Back to the Top			Gustave Liljestrom was born in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1902, Gustave and his brother first began American life as copper miners in Arizona. Inspired by the beauty of the Southwest to become a painter, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduation, he spent some time in China studying Chinese painting, sculpture and architecture. In 1909, Liljestrom worked as a designer and Oriental expert for Gump's in San Francisco. In the 1930's, he began a series of exhibitions which included Edgar Payne, Armin Hansen, William Ritschell, Arthur Hill Gilbert, William Wendt and himself. He was member of the Bohemian Club and the Society for Sanity in Art. Back to the Top
Nellie Moody (19th century)			William Frederic Ritschel 1864 - 1949

Nellie Moody was a 19th century artist in Sonoma County California. This painting was done in 1877, and exhibits the importance of grape growing in the region at that time. All we know so far is that she lived and died in Sonoma County and that she was a skilled painter. Back to the Top			Ritschel's works are held by at least 16 museums including the Oakland Museum of California, with an extensive collection at the Monterey Art Museum. He is discussed in over 50 reference books. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1864, and studied art at the Royal Academy in Munich before emigrating to New York City in 1895. Much of his young life was spent at sea, and it is not surprising that as an artist his focus was on capturing the sea with its many personalities. Ritschel settled in Carmel in 1911, becoming one of the first artists to establish residence there subsequent to the devastating earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. He remained in Carmel the rest of his life. His watercolors tended to be rendered in mixed media, including gouache and pastel pigment touches. Back to the Top
Benigino Yamero Ruiz 1880 - 1929			Marius Schmidt 1868 - 1938

Peruvian Benigino Yamero Ruiz was born in 1880 and arrived as a teen aged immigrant in San Francisco in the late 1890's. His work was influenced by the French Barbizon school, and is similar to the paintings of William Keith of the same period. Like Keith, Ruiz did small paintings on the redwood panels removed from cigar box tops. He died young at age forty-nine in San Francisco. Back to the Top			Marius Schmidt was born in Kolding, Denmark in 1868 and showed artistic talents early on. His father disapproved of his son's interest in art, and sent him in 1880 at age 12 to live with his uncle in the United States. Fortunately, his American uncle appreciated young Marius' talents, encouraged him, and later sent him back to Denmark to study with notable Danish artists. When he returned to America, he settled in California. He lived in Oakland from 1909 to 1917, painting coastal scenes, landscapes, California Missions and gardens. He exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association. After 1917, due to the anti-German sentiment of World War I, Marius began signing his work Marius Smith. Towards the end of his life, he lived in the Laguna Beach area until his death. Back to the Top
Meyer Straus 1831 - 1905			James Everett Stuart 1852 - 1941

Bavarian Meyer Straus was 17 years old when he arrived in the United States in 1848. He used his artistic talents painting scenery for theaters in St. Louis, New Orleans, Chicago and finally San Francisco where he worked at the Grand Opera House. In 1876, he dedicated himself to easel painting and opened a Montgomery Street studio. He made sketching trips into Yosemite, Marin County, the Monterey Peninsula, and up to Oregon. He published some of these scenes as magazine illustrations. His paintings include still lifes, California missions, figure studies and landscapes of Northern California. He was a member of the Bohemian Club, and the San Francisco Art Association. His work was exhibited widely, and his works are held by the California Historical Society, the Nevada Museum, and the Oakland Museum. He died in San Francisco in 1905. Back to the Top			James Everett Stuart arrived in California with his parents in 1860 as an eight year old. He attended school in San Francisco and studied art with Thomas Hill and William Keith. His early work reflected the mood and mystery of the French Barbizon school. He painted extensively throughout the West and Alaska. He held a special fascination with Yellowstone. Between 1912 and 1941, he maintained a studio in San Francisco near Union Square. He was a member of the Bohemian Club, and many of his paintings were hung on the walls of fellow member's homes. One of his works hangs in the White House, and he's shown in the historical societies of Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Back to the Top
Manuel Valencia 1856 - 1935			Napoleon Primo Vallejo 1850 - 1923

Manuel Valenca was born in 1856, six years after California became a state. He aristocratic Spanish family received many land grants in the San Francisco area. He is a descendant of General Gabriel Valencia, the first governor of Sonora under Spanish rule. His grandfather came to Alta California and was an administrator at the Presidio in San Francisco. Manuel studied with Jules Tavernier. He worked as a commercial artist and was an art editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. He maintained studios in Santa Cruz and Monterey. He exhibited in San Francisco galleries such as Gumps and in New York at the Macbeth Gallery and at Delmonico's Restaurant. President William McKinley bought one of Valencia's Yosemite paintings. He died in 1935, and his ashes were spread on Mt. Tamalpais. Back to the Top			Napoleon Primo Vallejo is the son of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and his wife Benicia. He was born the same year California became a state. As a young man, he saw the influence of the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, and in late middle age, he saw the devastation of '06 quake, and then the resurrection of modern San Francisco. He had a passion for the out of doors, the subject of most of his paintings. He grew up in "Lachryma Montis" (tears of the Mountain), the Vallejo family home in Sonoma. When Napoleon was fifteen, his father built "Napoleon's Cottage," behind the main house. The house and Napoleon's Cottage still stand at the Sonoma State Historic Park. Back to the Top
George Arnold Weeden 1869 - 1939			Jack Wisby 1869 - 1940

George Arnold Weeden was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1869. At age 37, he arrived in San Francisco in 1906. He resided in the city the rest of his life, dying in San Francisco in 1939. Back to the Top			Jack Wisby was born in London in 1869. At age 23, he arrived in San Francisco and began his painting career without art training. He made many sketching trips to Yosemite. He lost many of his early works in the 1906 Quake, an event causing him to move across the Bay to Marin County. He lived in the Tomales Bay town of Inverness until 1912 when he built a new studio in Bolinas. He painted many rural Marin scenes, such as Lucas Valley, the San Geronimo Hills, and Mt. Tamalpais. In 1919, he moved to San Rafael where he remained until he died in 1940. He is best known for poetic oil paintings of Northern California. He exhibited with the Berkeley Art Association, the Torrence Gallery in San Anselmo, and his works reside in the Oakland Museum and the San Mateo County Historical Museum.