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Bodega Dunes Sunsetting


In our Newsletter, May 2025
Wayne Thiebaud Art Comes from Art thumbnail
"Wayne Thiebaud,
Art Comes From Art"
at San
Francisco's Legion of Honor


Joshua Meador, Point Arena Light, 12 x 16, oil on linen
Joshua Meador 1911-1965
Point Arena Light
oil on linen, 12 x 16

Sacramento's Wayne Thiebaud is known for his paintings of common everyday things, desserts, figure paintings, cityscapes and landscapes. San Francisco's Legion of Honor Museum is currently presenting an extraordinary exhibition,Wayne Thiebaud, Art Comes from Art, now through August 17, 2025.

This exhibition is different from anything I have ever seen in a museum exhibition before. Each of the paintings on exhibit, be it one of his desserts, cityscapes, landscapes, figurative paintings, nudes or instruments, is accompanied by a placard with a photo of the painting which Thiebaud "stole" from, either overtly or covertly. These placards often contain a Thiebaud quotation where he owns up to what idea or ideas he stole from the original painting.

Wayne Thiebaud freely admitted to being an "art thief." While discussing his artistic method, Thiebaud famously declared, "Art is not delivered in the morning paper, it has to be stolen from Mount Olympus!" He also quipped, "It's hard for me to think of artists who weren't an influence on me, because I'm such an obsessive thief."

Below is a selection of paintings currently on exhibit along with photos of the painting or paintings from which Wayne Thiebaud "stole" ideas.

Wayne Thiebaud, Art comes from Art Postcard

As an artist and an art teacher, Wayne loved being a member of the artistic community, past, present and future. Wayne spoke with artists every day, whether speaking with one of his art students, or a contemporary peer, or artists from long ago by studying and contemplating their art. Wayne said, "I love art history and love to go to museums. Seeing that another human being has invented a whole other kind of reality, a frozen moment in eternal time. It's astonishing!"

Thiebaud believed that art was not an evolutionary process. Art has never been a linear progression. Instead, Thiebaud thought of art as being a continuous cycle of appropriation and reinterpretation, artists building upon and transforming the ideas of those who came before them. He truly believed that no one period or style of art is superior to any other. The work cavemen did on the walls of their cave is just as valid as any other. Wayne considered himself fortunate to have been able to be a small part of this world of creativity and expression.

Wayne taught his students to be "art thieves" just as he was. His former student and friend Grace Munakata recalled Wayne's approach to teaching art. She wrote, "Wayne encouraged us to copy work of artists we admired. Rather than faithfully replicating an artist's painting, we were told to integrate from that artist what interested us. ...  He gave us an assignment, we were told to copy a masterwork. We matched colors, brush marks, and rhythms as closely as possible. Wayne told us that by remaking it ourselves, we were engaging in a visceral, firsthand way to understand a painting’s structure."


Art Thief: Lessons from Wayne Thiebaud, produced by The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor
featuring Timothy Anglin Burghard, Distinguished Senior Curator, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco

As for Thiebaud's paintings in this exhibition, many of them are very large canvases, highly textured and colorful. Regardless of how good photos of these paintings may be, they cannot do justice to the impact of experiencing them in person.

My comments for each of the paintings pictured below are, for the most part, taken from the exhibition placards. I suppose, in the spirit of the exhibition, I "stole" much of what I wrote. It is my hope that this article whets your appetite, and you make a trek to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and enjoy this wonderful exhibition.
Desserts
Wayne Thiebaud, Display Cakes 1963, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Wayne Thiebaud, Display Cakes 1963, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Some of Wayne Thiebaud's most interesting reinterpretations seemingly have nothing to do with the painting which served as his idea source. Thiebaud's Display Cakes doesn't seem to have anything to do with Edgar Degas' The Millinery Shop.

Thiebaud seems to have transformed Degas' round hats on stands into circular decorated cakes on stands. The cakes seem impossibly balanced, hovering in the air. Degas' hats and Thiebaud's cakes are both on display, tempting consumers in a dazzling array of color and style.

Thiebaud said, "The kind of painting I admire in the tradition of representational painting, comes from painters who are able to combine perceptual manifestations and conceptual enterprises."
Edgar Degas 1834-1917 The Millinery Shop 1874-86 Art Institute of Chicago
Edgar Degas 1834-1917
The Millinery Shop 1874-86
Art Institute of Chicago
Wayne Thiebaud, Confections 1962 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Wayne Thiebaud, Confections 1962
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
In Confections, Thiebaud pays direct tribute to Giorgio Morandi's Still Life of 1941. Thiebaud said, "I have taken Morandi paintings and worked with them directly next to my own paintings to try to make mine look more like his."
Giorgio Morandi 1890-1964) Still Life 1940 Private Collection

Giorgio Morandi 1890-1964 Still Life 1940
Private Collection
At first glance, Thiebaud's Cakes and Pies and Cotan's Still Life with Fruits and Vegetables seem to have as little to do with each other, as much as a side of broccoli has to do with a hot fudge sundae.

But Cotan treated his subjects like actors on a stage, giving each the opportunity to shine. His vegetables are spotlighted and appear to be floating. Thiebaud's cakes are displayed on high pedestals, elevated and balanced on a thin dowel with no base. Both artists use an effective and array of colors to tempt the eye as well as the appetite.
Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes and Pies 1994 Kemper Museum, Kansas City, MO
Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes and Pies 1994
Kemper Museum, Kansas City, MO

Juan Sánchez Cotán Spanish
Still Life with Fruits and Vegetables, c1600
Colección de Banco Inversión, Madrid
Wayne Thiebaud, Buffet 1972, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Wayne Thiebaud, Buffet 1972, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Jacob van Hulsdonck, Flemish, 1582-1647 Still Life with Meat, Fish, Vegetables and Fruit c1615-1620 Private Collection
Jacob van Hulsdonck, Flemish, 1582-1647
Still Life with Meat, Fish, Vegetables and Fruit c1615-1620
Private Collection
Wayne Thiebaud loved Flemish and Dutch paintings of the 17th century, especially their lavishly portrayed tables laden with feasts of rich and exotic foods. It's easy to point out similarities with Thiebaud's Buffet and van Hulsdonk's Still Life with Meat, Vegetables and Fruit, even though Thiebaud's painting was done well over three centuries later.

Thiebaud said, "The potential of still-life painting is infinite, and all you have to do is look at what people are doing in still life, but remembering that when you go to the Metropolitan Museum and see a Dutch painting this big, including ten or fifteen objects -- that's a challenge. You've got to come up with something that is the measure of that, so you can spend a lifetime."
Wayne Thiebaud, Three Machines 1963, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco
Wayne Thiebaud, Three Machines 1963, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco
Thiebaud's Three Machines and artist Laren Maclver's Penny Candy Vendors both focus on the gum ball, the smallest and most basic of American consumerism. This most common of the penny candies represented the whole cycle of consumerism ... the imagined ideal, to the pleasure of possession, to the state of diminishing returns and finally to a sense of loss ... until the next gum ball.

Thebaid said, "Well, I must have seen things that represented what it was possible to do. I remember later on seeing a painting by a wonderful woman painter, Loren Maclver, a gum ball machine. I didn't see it until years later, but it's in the Metropolitan Museum."
Loren Maclver (American 1909-1998) Penny Candy Vendors 1940 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Loren Maclver
(American 1909-1998)
Penny Candy Vendors 1940
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Cityscapes
Wayne Thiebaud, Sacramento 1982, Sothebys
Wayne Thiebaud, Sacramento 1982, Sothebys
Jonas Lie (Norway) 1880-1940, Path of Gold, High Museum, Atlanta, GA
Jonas Lie (Norway) 1880-1940, Path of Gold
High Museum, Atlanta, GA
Wayne Thiebaud spent most of the 1956-57 academic year in New York where he met with most of the prominent Abstract Expressionists of the time, gauging his work with theirs. Thiebaud learned a great deal in New York, especially from Willem de Kooning, but rather than working in New York, he chose to remain in Sacramento for the whole of his career.

Thiebaud's Sacramento is perhaps his most direct appropriation of another artist's work. He took Jonas Lie's Path of Gold and replaced New York with Sacramento, the East River with the Sacramento River and the Brooklyn Bridge with Sacramento's Tower Bridge. Both paintings have the same bird's eye perspective with smoky boats plying the shimmering river waters, although the East River has considerably more traffic than the Sacramento.
Thiebaud said Window Views was inspired by Bonnard's Dining Room Overlooking the Garden. Both paintings fuse a flat window divided vertically with a foreground table. Elmer Bischoff was also inspired by Bonnard's painting in his Interior with Cityscape, but adds a gulf between the woman seated at the table and the man standing at the window.

Thiebaud's window reveals an overwhelming size of San Francisco with its high hills and steep streets and a single person seated just beneath an expansive window view of San Francisco's steep, nearly vertical streets.
Wayne Thiebaud, Window Views 1989-93 Private Collection
Wayne Thiebaud, Window Views 1989-93
Private Collection
Pierre Bonnard (French) 1867-1947 Dining Room Overlooking the Garden 1930-31 Museum of Modern Art, NY
Pierre Bonnard (French)
1867-1947
Dining Room
Overlooking the Garden
1930-31
Museum of Modern Art, NY
Elmer Bischoff 1916-1991 Interior with Cityscape 1969 Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, University
Elmer Bischoff 1916-1991
Interior with Cityscape 1969
Cantor Arts Center,
Stanford University
Wayne Thiebaud, Road Through 1983, Collection of Karen and Brian Conway
Wayne Thiebaud, Road Through 1983, Collection of Karen and Brian Conway

MaMartin Ramirez 1895-1963 (above)
Untitled, (Three Vans) 1948-1953
Estate of Martin Ramirez

Barnett Newman 1905-1953 (left)
Monument 1945
Estate of Barnett Newman

Although Rough Road is not a "cityscape," it has a highway on a familiar steep vertical rise which characterized his San Francisco cityscapes.

Wayne Thiebaud was inspired by Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman's "zip" or "stripe" paintings. Thiebaud said, "If you're dealing with the sublime, you're making a caricature of something -- a single line down the canvas for Barnett Newman is a sublime idea."

Thiebaud's Road Through also draws inspiration from Martin Ramirez's drawing of a similar hill. Ramirez was a resident of a psychiatric hospital in central California where Thiebaud visited him. Thiebaud strongly believed that there was no difference between so called "fine" and "folk" art.
Wayne Thiebaud, Office and Shopping Mall 2005 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud, Office and Shopping Mall 2005
Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud admired Piet Mondrian for his ability to paint both representational flower studies and geometric abstractions. Thiebaud's Office and Shopping Mall takes Mondrian's abstracted grids in New York City 2, making them into steel beams of a building while simultaneously creating both flattened and deeply recessive space.

Thiebaud said, "When Piet Mondrian was talking to a friend in the New York studio, he walked to his window, pulled down the blind, and said, 'I can't stand all that disorganization out there.' To make a life of order out of the buzzing confusions of this wondrous but difficult world demands our best efforts. As far as I can see, thoughtful paintings that try to do this have always been extremely rare. Negotiating the perceptual world into a conceptual entity of some interest and dimension is a challenge of the championship level."

Piet Mondrian (Dutch) 1872-1944
New York City #2
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Richard Diebenkorn used abstraction to evoke representation, while Thiebaud used representation that verged on abstraction.

Although Thiebaud's Day Streets is not a visual match for Diebenkorn's Ocean Park #30, it easy to see both artists playing with the same artistic ideas.

In an academic sense, Thiebaud's cityscape creates physical disorientation and psychological unease. But for a casual art lover, it's an incredibly fun painting with its challenging three dimensional ideas clashing with being depicted in a two dimensional way.

Wayne Thiebaud, Day Streets 1996, Kemper Museum, Kansas City, MO
Wayne Thiebaud, Day Streets 1996, Kemper Museum, Kansas City, MO
Richard Diebenkorn 1922-1993 Ocean Park #30 Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Richard Diebenkorn 1922-1993
Ocean Park #30
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Wayne Thiebaud, Dark City 1999, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud, Dark City 1999, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
In Dark City (San Francisco), Wayne Thiebaud borrowed from both Charles Sheeler's Skyscrapers and Geogia O'Keeffe's New York Night. All three of these cityscapes are tightly cropped. Thiebaud shows the buildings as rectangular geometric slabs and places them in a nighttime setting like Georgia O'Keeffe.

Thiebaud said, "You still want to be sure to acknowledge the influences, like Diebenkorn, who was a big influence, and so many good influences -- Edward Hopper and all those great early New York City painters. Whenever I go to the Met, I can't resist going to see all those terrific old paintings."

Charles Sheeler 1883-1965
Skyscrapers 1922
The Phillips Collection
Washington, D.C.

Georgia O'Keeffe 1887-1986
New York Night 1928-29
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Sante Fe, NM
Landscapes
Wayne Thiebaud, Cypress Farms 1995-96, Thomas W. Weisel Family Collection
Wayne Thiebaud, Cypress Farms 1995-96, Thomas W. Weisel Family Collection
Richard Diebenkorn 1922-1993, Beach 1957,  collection of Gretchen and John Berggruen, San Francisco
Richard Diebenkorn 1922-1993, Beach 1957,
collection of Gretchen and John Berggruen, San Francisco
Wayne Thiebaud often talked about how the San Francisco cityscapes by Richard Diebenkorn influenced him, but Thiebaud also liked Diebenkorn's landscapes, often with strong horizontal strata, sharp diagonals all done with a luminous color palette.

Thiebaud said, "I knew so little about color. It was only when I fell in love with some of the things that Dick loved, like the color in Persian and Indian miniatures, which also influenced Matisse and Bonnard."
Wayne Thiebaud was comfortable with mountains. They were all around him in his youth in Utah. Once in Sacramento, he often visited the High Sierra. He enjoyed studying the mountain paintings of Hudson River School artists Thomas Hill and William Keith at Sacramento's Crocker Museum.

Thiebaud's Blue Ridge Mountain draws elements from Bridalveil Falls by a follower of artist Thomas Hill. Both paintings have a limited sky, focusing on the plunging waters and walls of the soaring cliffs.
Wayne Thiebaud, Blue Ridge Mountain 2010 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud, Blue Ridge Mountain 2010
Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
after Thomas Hill 1929-1908 Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite  Collection of the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
after Thomas Hill 1929-1908
Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite
Collection of the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud, The Sea Rolls In 1958, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento
Wayne Thiebaud, The Sea Rolls In 1958, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento
Wayne Thiebaud's The Sea Rolls In recalls Marsden Hartley's coastal paintings in the State of Maine. During the 1950's, Thiebaud's role models were artists such as Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning. But as time moved on, he turned to earlier American artists such as Lyonel Feininger, John Marin and Marsden Hartley.

Marsden Hartley 1877-1943
The Wave 1940-41
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Wayne Thiebaud, Surfer Ridge 2005-2009-2018-2019, Wayne Thiebaude Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud, Surfer Ridge 2005-2009-2018-2019, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation

Milton Avery, Sand, Sea and Sky 1960
Private Collection
Milton Avery was a representational artist, maintaining that style until the end of his career, but he also responded to new developments in contemporary art, especially the Abstract Expressionist works of Mark Rothko, who gave the eulogy at Avery's funeral.

Thiebaud painted numerous coastal landscapes, often with three color fields like Avery's Sand Sea and Sky.

In Thiebaud's Surfer Ridge, he animates the geometric abstraction adding human figures and even a surfer's dog.
Wayne Thiebaud, Laguna Rise 2003-2010-2012-2018, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud, Laguna Rise 2003-2010-2012-2018, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Laguna Rise is one of the most unbelievable of Thiebaud's city images. Thiebaud's loved painting San Francisco with its buildings and hills He described The City as a "fairy tale," not too far from columnist Herb Caen's most memorable description of San Francisco as "Bagdad by the Bay."

Thiebaud once commented on having seen Goya's A City on a Rock. Francisco de Goya's A City on the Rock is now believed to have been done by one of his students. It portrays a city surrounded by dangers, using its natural location high on a rock as a strategic defense.


after Francisco de Goya 1746-1828
A City on a Rock, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Wayne Thiebaud, Diagonal Ridge 1968, Private Collection
Wayne Thiebaud, Diagonal Ridge 1968, Private Collection
Wayne Thiebaud often reflected contemporary art in his own works. It was his way to say that representation is not opposed to abstraction, but goes with it. He said, "I'm just essentially a traditional representational painter, and by that I mean, always interested in imagery, trying to make a representational painting that has as much abstraction as seems to fit that particular mode of representation."
Elsworth Kelly 1923-2015, Black and White 1968,  Glennstone Museum, Travilah, MD
Elsworth Kelly 1923-2015, Black and White 1968,
Glennstone Museum, Travilah, MD
Thiebaud's childhood memories growing up in Utah lead to a life-long fascination with mountains. But this painting draws its inspiration from the poured-pigment Veil paintings of Morris Louis, which for Thiebaud resembled cliff faces he had known from his earliest memories.

He said, "Well, the technique at first was very much influenced by the painter Morris Louis ... So, I started dyeing. I got some big irrigation canvas and tacked it up on the wall, and began staining it with these compositional notions, and tried to investigate the idea of this sort of watercolor wet-on-wet technique. And I just stole his procedure, and made them into mountains and put trees on the top of them, which is kind of ridiculous. But I liked those concepts of extremism."
Wayne Thiebaud, Canyon Mountains 2011 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Wayne Thiebaud, Canyon Mountains 2011
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Morris Louis 1912-1962, Dalet Kaf 1959
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX
Figurative
Wayne Thiebaud, Eating Figures 1963, Acquavella Galleries, New York
Wayne Thiebaud, Eating Figures 1963, Acquavella Galleries, New York
At first glance, Thiebaud's Eating Figures and Degas' L'Absinthe drinkers seem to have little in common. After all, fast paced American life often accompanied with fast food has little to do with the 19th century Paris cafe scene.

But despite their unrelated settings, both Thiebaud and Degas are sharing a mood, where these individuals attempt to remedy the weariness of the moment by feeding themselves on fast food or by drinking absinthe.
Edgar Degas 1834-1917, L'Absinthe 1875-76 Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Edgar Degas 1834-1917, L'Absinthe 1875-76
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Wayne Thiebaud, Five Seated Figures 1965, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud, Five Seated Figures 1965, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Edgar Degas 1934-1917 The Belllelli Family 1858-1869 Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Edgar Degas 1934-1917
The Belllelli Family 1858-1869
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Edgar Degas' The Bellelli Family is famous because it captures members of the family in emotional isolation from each other.

Looking at Thiebaud's Five Seated Figures, it's easy to see that these people are uneasy. They don't want to be with each other. There is no eye contact between any two of them. Their posture is self contained, not at all receptive to any interaction whatsoever. After looking at the painting for a while, it's easy to get the sense that these people aren't really there at all. The shadows of the chairs are consistent with the furniture, but the shadows of the people on the chairs are almost totally absent.
For Girl with Ice Cream Cone, Thiebaud's wife Betty Jean was pressed into model duty. Here she poses with an ice cream cone, emulating the radical perspective in Andrea Mategna's Lamentaion Over the Dead Christ. Both paintings have the model's feet prominently filling the foreground.

Thiebaud said, "I love that painting ... foreshortening, the caricature that he came up with ... absolutely a delight. I mean it's as much a cartoon as it is a couple of feet and I love that -- that's the stuff that really attracts me a great deal. So In Girl with Ice Cream Cone, you see a little bit of an evidence of that, the difference let's say between those big bare feet sticking in your eye almost, and then the little hand way back in the back with a little blue shadow."
Wayne Thiebaud, Girl with Ice Cream Cone 1963 Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Wayne Thiebaud, Girl with Ice Cream Cone 1963
Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Andrea Mantagna 1431-1506 Lamentation over the Dead Christ c1483 Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy
Andrea Mantegna 1431-1506
Lamentation over the Dead Christ c1483
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy
Wayne Thiebaud, Tapestry Skirt 1976, 1982, 2003, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
Wayne Thiebaud, Tapestry Skirt 1976, 1982, 2003, Wayne Thiebaud Foundation
James McNeil Whistler 1834-1903 Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1, 1871 Musee d'Orsay, Paris
James McNeil Whistler 1834-1903
Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1, 1871
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Tapestry Skirt is a portrait of Betty Jean Thiebaud, the artist's wife. This painting was a challenge for Thiebaud because he was reinterpreting one of the most famous American paintings ever created, Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1, popularly known as "Whistler's Mother."

In Thiebaud's Tapestry Skirt, Betty Thiebaud is facing in the opposite direction and also turns her head to the viewer while Whistler has his mother in profile. Also contrasting with Whistler's subtle color harmonies is Betty Thiebaud's colorful skirt, with a marvelous selection of blues, purples and greens.
Wayne Thiebaud, Review Girl 1963, Private Collection
Wayne Thiebaud, Review Girl 1963, Private Collection
Wayne Thiebaud had great admiration for Walt Kuhn because he played an important role in keeping the figurative tradition in American Art alive during the ascent of abstract art. Kuhn's flattened and abstracted elements of his circus and vaudeville figure paintings was a big influence on Thiebaud.

Thiebaud's The Review Girl is wearing a fringed costume with a headdress topped with flamboyant feathers. She poses confidently, but her tiny shadow renders her more like a paper doll. Walt Kuhn's Salute and Plumes both have their subject looking forward, drawing attention to the figure's costume and feathered headress.
Walt Kuhn 1877-1949 Salute 1934  Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Walt Kuhn 1877-1949
Salute 1934
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Walt Kuhn 1877-1949 Plumes 1931 The Phillips Collection Washington, D.C.
Walt Kuhn 1877-1949
Plumes 1931
The Phillips Collection
Washington, D.C.
Nudes
Thiebaud's full length seated Nude borrows its composition from Edvard Munch's Puberty. But where Munch focuses on the transition from girlhood to womanhood, Thiebaud shows us a mature woman, alert and symmetrical with a straight forward gaze. Visually, Thiebaud manipulates the space, making it appear that the woman is seated upon two horizontal lines. Munch's subjects often were expressive giving clues of their inner lives.

To the contrary, Thiebaud avoided obvious expressive emotions. He said, "Purely formal problems have always been what's most important to me, and I try to downplay subject matter because I'm afraid it limits how people think about pictures."
Wayne Thiebaud, Nude 1963, Private Collection
Wayne Thiebaud, Nude 1963, Private Collection
Edvard Munch (Norwegian) 1883-1944 Puberty 1894, National Museum, Oslo, Norway
Edvard Munch (Norwegian) 1883-1944
Puberty 1894, National Museum, Oslo, Norway
Wayne Thiebaude, Nude in Interior c1982, Sothebys Auction House
Wayne Thiebaud, Nude in Interior c1982, Sothebys Auction House
The pose of Thiebaud's Nude in Interior showing this woman seated on a "too-small" bed is derived from Henri Matisse's nude Carmelina. In both paintings the figures have an enlarged right hand. Matisse's painting has a small image of the artist reflected in the mirror to the model's right. In Thiebaud's pastel, a man is pictured. Is he real, a reflection, or the woman's imagined visage?
Henri Matisse 1869-1954, Carmelina 1903 Museum of Finer Arts, Boston, MA
Henri Matisse 1869-1954, Carmelina 1903
Museum of Finer Arts, Boston, MA
Thiebaud admired Manet because of his ability to draw upon tradition while pioneering modern painting.

Thiebaud said, "That kind of one-on-one immediate stroke, which came from a whole tradition -- from Diego Velazquez and Frans Hals and Édouard Manet through John Singer Sargent ... all of whom had that same kind of flashy bravura, no babying up, no going over, you have got to do it as you go. It can be the most terrible of cheap painting or the most eloquent on the other."
Wayne Thiebaud, Girl with Pink Hat 1973,  San Francisco Museum of Modern ArtWayne Thiebaud, Girl with Pink Hat 1973,  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Wayne Thiebaud, Girl with Pink Hat 1973,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Édouard Manet 1832-1883, Blonde with Bare Breasts 1878
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Instruments
Wayne Thiebaud, Guitar 1962, Private Collection
Wayne Thiebaud, Guitar 1962, Private Collection
This portrait of Wayne Thiebaud's Martin guitar invites us to view it with our sight, our hearing and our touch. Thiebaud's Guitar appears to float in the air. Guitars usually do not come with hanging hardware, allowing it to appear as if it had a flying spirit.

Picasso's Guitar, now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is created with two-dimensional sheet metal and plays with our preconceived ideas of how three dimensional ideas should be depicted.

Picasso said, "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth."
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973, Guitar 1914 Museum of Modern Art, New York
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973, Guitar 1914
Museum of Modern Art, New York
In 1955, Wayne Thiebaud visited artist Franz Kline in his New York Studio and saw Kline's The Bridge.

Thiebaud's Electric Chair is an atypically serious subject for him. His treatment of this subject with bold brushstrokes was probably influenced by Franz Kline's The Bridge. During his visit with Kline, Thiebaud was struck by the Abstract Expressionist's interest in art history.

Thiebaud wrote, "It was just shocking to hear someone like Franz Kline talking about Vermeer, until you thought about his work. And it was shocking to know how much de Kooning liked Fairfield Porter, for instance. It was interesting to hear Barnett Newman extol and be so ecstatic over the Mona Lisa and what he would say about it."
Wayne Thiebaud, Electric Chair 1957, Smithsonian Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Wayne Thiebaud, Electric Chair 1957, Smithsonian Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Wayne Thiebaud, Electric Chair 1957, Smithsonian Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Franz Kline 1910-1962, The Bridge, 1955
Williams-Proctor Art Institute, Utica, NY
Wayne Thiebaud, Violin and Shadow 1986 Collection of Lorna and Dennis Calas
Wayne Thiebaud, Violin and Shadow 1986
Collection of Lorna and Dennis Calas
"Trompe-l'œil"  is a French artistic term for a highly realistic optical illusion of three dimensional space. 

In Violin and Shadow, Thiebaud is admiring the "trompe l'oeil" (fool the eye) tradition used a century earlier by American artist William Michael Harnett in his The Old Violin.

Here, Wayne Thiebaud gives us a subject which is nearly vertical with an angled shadow. The pegs of the violin appear larger in the shadow than on the actual violin.

Thiebaud said, "Well, I think trompe l'oeil painting is like a magic trick. It has its place and I think it's part of the picture of what painting can do. What's interesting to me is it fails when it tries to have anything deeper than a coin or a piece of paper. Once you put a violin in there, it hurts. You know?"
William Michael Harnett (American 1848-1892) The Old Violin 1886, The National Gallery, Washington D.C.
William Michael Harnett (American 1848-1892)
The Old Violin 1886, The National Gallery, Washington D.C.
A holographic image of Wayne Thiebaud bids gallery visitors Adieu as the leave the exhibit for they enter the gift store
A holographic image of Wayne Thiebaud bids gallery visitors Adieu as they leave the exhibit and enter the gift shop.

Dessert and Coffee at the Legion of Honor's Cafe after viewing Wayne Thiebaud, Art Comes from Art

Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art runs through August 17th. Make a plan and get to San Francisco to see this one, it's far too good to miss!

Enjoy getting to know Wayne Thiebaud. Discover his art, his philosopy of art and his joy at being part of the greater art community. See in Wayne's art the wide ranging influences that inspired him.

Having seen the exhibition, I believe Thiebaud achieved his goal. This "art thief" was fortunate enough to be "part of all that."

After his long, memorable and illustrious career, Wayne Thiebaud died on Christmas Day, 2021, at the age of 101. His legacy for us is good news. Each of us can be part "of all that" too. We, like Wayne, can dare to steal inspiration from those who came before us -- we can dare to steal "from Olympus."
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Beyond the exhibition, the Legion of Honor's Cafe was impressive! We enjoyed a coffee and a gnosh in the Cafe.

The coffee was a dark roast worthy of high praise, and we shared a Wayne Thiebaud inspired (mango cheesecake) dessert. Overheard from nearby tables were conversations of visitors discussing Theibaud's paintings as they scrolled through cell phone photos of the exhibition.

All in all, it was a very pleasurable and enlightening trip to the City.
Exhibition page, Legion of Honor |

Gallery news
Fishermans Festival, Saturday May 3 and Sunday May 4
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Fish Fest Flyer 2025

Planning a visit to Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery?

Here's a tip:

Please look at our online collection beforehand. We have more paintings than our gallery can hold at one time. If any of our online collection interests you, call or text (707-875-2911) in advance, telling us which painting or paintings interest you, and we'll have the painting(s) at the galllery when you arrive.


Linda and Dan


... in and around Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery
1580 Eastshore Road
Between the Terrapin Creek Cafe and Roadhouse Coffee
open Thurs-Sun, Noon 'till 5 -- other times by chance or appointment

an exceptional collection of late 19th and early 20th century paintings by well known California artists

http://www.BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com | Call or Text 707-875-2911
email: Art@BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com

Joshua Meador Mendocino Coast
"Mendocino Coast"
Joshua Meador
Ren Brown
Ren Brown

The Ren Brown Collection

Just steps away from Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery
A sumptuous gallery experience ...
Contemporary Japanese Prints, Handmade Ceramics & Jewelry,
Japanese Antiques, California Artists & Sculptors

1781 Coast Highway One, Bodega Bay, 94923
707-875-2922 |  rbc4art@renbrown.com
http://www.renbrown.com | Back to the Top

Reb Brown Sign Thumbnail

Linda Sorensen, Kortum Trail

Linda Sorensen Paintings

You may meet Linda and view a selection of her paintings at Bodega Bay
Heritage Gallery,
Thurs - Sun, 12:00- 5:00pm.

Linda paints colorful and imaginative / transcendental-influenced
landscapes emphasizing design, abstraction and Post-Impressionism.

LindaSorensenPaintings.com | 707-875-2911

Linda Sorensen at her easel, photo by John Hershey
Dodrill Gallery, Bodega, CA In the nearby town of Bodega ... Dodrill Gallery
17175 Bodega Highway, Bodega CA 94922
Famed photographer, world adventurer and rock climber
Jerry Dodrill exhibits and sells and his exceptional landscape photographs
... https://jerrydodrill.photoshelter.com/p/page2 | 707-377-4732
Photo@JerryDodrill.com| Back to the Top
Jerry Dodrill, Dodrill Gallery, Bodega, CA
In the nearby town of Bodega ... Artisans' Co-op
featuring the talents of local artists ... photography, paintings, textiles, jewelry, ceramic and wood art
17175 Bodega Highway, Bodega CA 94922
... http://www.artisansco-op.com| 707-876-9830
Back to the Top
Bodega Gallery, Bodega, CA Bodega Gallery
in the historic town of Bodega
We are located in the town's original blacksmith shop from the 1850's
and it has been an art gallery since the 1960's. We showcase jewelry, toys, paintings,
kinetic art, and decorative and functional ceramics.

https://bodegaartgallery.com | 415-515-4665
Bodega Gallery, Bodega, CA
Bodega Bay's John Hershey Photography
Bodega Bay resident photographer John Hershey displays his scenic shoreline and sea life images locally in restaurants, visitor venues and art shows. His 50 year career has encompassed multimedia production, commercial and personal photography, environmental portraiture, and community photojournalism.
John recently added interpretive infrared photography to his portfolio. 
John Hershey Photography Portfolio ... http://www.jhersheyphoto.com
John Hershey Photography Sales ... https://j-hershey-media.square.site

\Jean Warren Sand Harbor
Bodega Bay's Jean Warren Watercolors
Bodega Bay resident Jean Warren says her paintings are reflections
of the places she has lived and traveled.
Jean is a Signature member of the National Watercolor Society,
California Watercolor Association and full member of Society of Layerists in Multi-Media.
http://www.JeanWarren.com / 707-875-9240

Jean Warren Watercolor

What's nearby in Sonoma County?
Sebastopol Center for the Arts

IN SEBASTOPOL - Sebastopol Center for the Arts
... see website for on-line activities sebarts.org
home of Sonoma County's Art @ the Source and Art Trails
282 S. High Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472  707.829.4797
T
hursdays through Sundays 10:00am to 4:00pm

Corricks Kevin Brown
Corrick's Keven Brown
IN SANTA ROSA
Corrick's Art Trails Gallery | http://www.corricks.com/arttrailsgallery
637 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 | Contact:: http://www.corricks.com/contact-us

Corrick's has been a Santa Rosa Treasure since 1915,
a downtown stationery store serving as the community's "cultural hub."
Corrick's has long supported local artists with its impressive "ART TRAILS GALLERY,"
including paintings by Linda Sorensen.
Corricks offers a number of originals by famed Santa Rosa artist, Maurice Lapp
... (see our August 2017 article)

located on Fourth Street, steps away from Santa Rosa's revitalized town square
and Fourth Street's Russian River Brewery
Linda Sorensen's White Barn 1880, currently available at Corricks
Linda Sorensen's
White Barn circa 1880,
Sea Ranch

currently available at
Corricks Logo
BBHPhoto Dennis Calabi
Dennis Calabi
IN SANTA ROSA- Calabi Gallery | http://www.calabigallery.com


456 Tenth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 | email: info@calabigallery.com | 707-781-7070
Famed master conservator Dennis Calabi brings his rare knowledge and experience
to present a tasteful and eclectic array of primarily 20th century artwork.

http://www.calabigallery.com | Back to the Top
Easton Crustacean Dancing Dream 144
Easton, Crustacean Dancing Dream, American Alabaster
Annex Galleries Santa Rosa IN Santa Rosa - The Annex Galleries
specializing in 19th, 20th, and 21st century American and European fine prints
The Annex Galleries is a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA).
http://www.AnnexGalleries.com | Back to the Top
Rik Olson

IN GRATON - Graton Gallery
home of many of Sonoma County's best artists
http://www.gratongallery.com
Sally Baker, Tim Hayworth, Bruce K. Hopkins,
Rik Olson, Susan Proehl, Sandra Rubin, Tamra Sanchez, Mylette Welch
Graton Gallery | (707) 829-8912  | artshow@gratongallery.com
9048 Graton Road, Graton CA 95444 | Open Saturday and Sunday check website

Christopher Queen Gallery IN DUNCANS MILLS - Christopher Queen Galleries
3 miles east of Hwy 1 on Hwy 116 on the Russian River
http://www.christopherqueengallery.com |707-865-1318| Back to the Top
Paul Mahder Gallery Thumbnail IN Healdsburg - Paul Mahder Gallery
http://www.paulmahdergallery.com

(707) 473-9150 | Info@paulmahdergallery.com
222 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg, CA 95448 | check for hours
Petaluma Arts Council Art Center

IN PETALUMA - Petaluma Arts Center
"... to celebrate local artists and their contributions and involve the whole community"

Petaluma Center for the Arts

Links to current museum exhibits relevant to Early California Art
The Greater Bay Area
The Walt Disney Family Museum
-- see website for details
This museum tells Walt's story from the early days.
(on the Parade Grounds) 104 Montgomery Street,
The Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129

-- view location on Google Maps
--
Disney Museum Exterior Thumbnail San Francisco
... see website
de Young Museum
Permanent Collection
De Young Museum Thumbnail
San Francisco
closed, see website
California Historical Society
California Historical Society Thumbnail San Francisco
Legion of Honor

... see website
-Permanent European and Impressionist Paintings
San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum
San Francisco
open, see website for details
Contemporary Jewish Museum

San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum Thumbnail Oakland
... see website
Oakland Museum of California

-- ongoing Gallery of California Art
-showcasing over 800 works
from the OMCA's collection
Oakland Museum Thumbnail

San Francisco
SFMOMA

http://www.sfmoma.org

SF Museum of Modern Art

Santa Rosa
...
see website
The Museums of Sonoma County

Sonoma County Museum Thumbnail
Santa Rosa
... see website
Charles M. Schultz Museum

Charles M Schultz Museum Santa Rosa

Moraga
... see website
St Mary's College Museum of Art
Hearst Art Gallery

Hearst Art Gallery Thumbnail
Sonoma
Mission San Francisco de Solano Museum

featuring the famed watercolor paintings
of the California Missions
by Christian Jorgensen
Mission San Francisco de Solano in Sonoma CA Sonoma
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

... see website
551 Broadway, Sonoma CA
(707) 939-7862
Sonoma Museum of Art Exterior Thumb
Ukiah
Grace Hudson Museum

... see website
http://www.gracehudsonmuseum.org
Grace Hudson Museum

Bolinas
Bolinas Museum

... see website
featuring their permanent collection,
including Ludmilla and Thadeus Welch,
Arthur William Best, Jack Wisby,
Russell Chatham, Alfred Farnsworth
.

Elizabeth Holland McDaniel Bolinas Embarcadero thumbnail
Walnut Creek
... see website
The Bedford Gallery, Lesher
Center for the Arts
Lesher Ctr for the Arts Walnut Creek CA San Jose
San Jose Museum of Art

... see website
approximately 2,000 20th & 21st
century artworks including paintings, sculpture,
new media, photography, drawings, prints, and artist books.
San Jose Museum of Art Thumbnail
Monterey
Monterey Museum of Art

... see website
Ongoing exhibitions ...
Museums Permanent Collection
including William Ritschel, Armin Hansen
and E. Charlton Fortune

http://www.montereyart.org
Monterey Museum of Art Palo Alto
... see website
Cantor Art Center at Stanford University
Cantor Art Center at Stanford University

Monterey
Salvador Dali Museum

prepurchased tickets required, ... see website

Salvador Dali Museum Monterey Sacramento
Crocker Art Museum
... see websites
http://www.crockerartmuseum.org
Sacramento
Capitol Museum

... see website
Governor's Portrait Gallery
Permanent Exhibits

(including one of our galllery's favorite artists,
Robert Rishell's portrait of Gov. Ronald Reagan
Capitol Museum Sacramento Thumbnail Stockton's Treasure!
The Haggin Museum

... see website
-Largest exhibition of Albert Bierstadt paintings anywhere, plus the works of Joseph Christian Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell's mentor.
see our Newsletter article, April 2011
Haggin Museum Stockton
Southern California (and Arizona) (for all museums below, see websites for hours and protocols.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles Museum of Art

Art of the Americas, Level 3:
Artworks of paintings and sculptures
from the colonial period to World War II—
a survey of of art and culture
& "Levitated Mass"
Irvine
UCI IMCA
(University of California, Irvine
Institute and Museum of California Art)

(formerly The Irvine Museum)


Irvine Museum Thumbnail
Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Santa Barbara Museum of Art Thumbnail Orange

Hilbert Museum, Chapman University

Hilbert Museum Chapman University Orange CA
San Diego
San Diego Museum of Art
Permanent Collection

San Diego Museum of Art Thumbnail Pasadena
Norton Simon Museum
-an Impressive Permanent collection,
European impressionist
and post impressionist paintings
See our newsletter from March 2014
Norton Simon Museum Pasadena
Los Angeles
California African American Art Museum
adjacent to the LA Coliseum
(see our newsletter articleof their
Ernie Barnes Exhibition September 2019)
California African American Art Museum San Marino (near Pasadena)
The Huntington Library

American Art Collection
Paintings by John Singer Sargent,
Edward Hopper, Robert Henri,
Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran,
William Keith, Mary Cassatt,
Thomas Hart Benton and many more.

Huntington Library Art Collection Pasadena
Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix Art Museum
an excellent sampling of
Artists of the American West
Phoenix Art Museum

Palm Springs
Palm Springs Art Museum

Permanent Collection
American 19th century Landscape Painting

Palm Springs Art Museum Thumbnail
& Beyond
Honolulu, HI
Honolulu Museum
(see our Newsletter article
from February, 2015)


Honolulu Museum of Art Kamuela, HI (Big Island)
Issacs Art Center
65-1268 Kawaihae Road
Kamuela, HI  96743
(See our Dec '16 article "Hawaii's Paul Gauguin," 
modernist Madge Tennent, 1889-1972)

Isaacs Art Center
Seattle, WA
Seattle Art Museum
( see our article Mar 2018
French and American Paintings )
Seattle Art Museum Portland, OR
Portland Art Museum

Permanent Collection: American Art
Portland Art Museum Thumbnail
Washington D.C.
The Renwick Gallery

Permanent ... Grand Salon Paintings
from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Renwick Gallery Washington DC Chicago, IL
Art Institute of Chicago
Permanent collection:
the Impressionists
Art Institute of Chicago Thumbnail
Cedar Rapids, IA
The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
Grant Wood: In Focus

is an ongoing permanent collection exhibition.
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Washington D.C.
The National Gallery
Permanent collection
American Paintings
Tha National Gallery Washington DC Thumbnail Philadelphia , PA
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art Thumbnail
Philadelphia , PA
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Campus
Barnes Foundation Campus Philadelphia Brooklyn, NY
The Brooklyn Museum
American Art
Permanent Collection
The Brooklyn Museum Thumbnail
New York , NY
The Whitney Museum of American Art
The largest selection of works by Edward Hopper
The Whitney Museum of American Art New York New York, NY
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Its extensive collection of American Art
Metropolitan Museum New York
Detroit, MI
Detroit Institute of Arts
American Art
Permanent Collection
Detroit Institute of Arts Ottawa, Ontario
National Gallery of Canada
Canada National Gallery of Art
Denver, CO
Denver Art Museum
Denver Art Museum Exterior

Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Museum of Fine Arts Boston

If you wish to sell a painting to us ...

At present, we are acquiring few paintings. We are interested in considering works by Joshua Meador, or exceptional paintings by a few other Historic California artists. We do not do miscellaneous consignments but do represent artist estates. We do not provide appraisal services.

DO NOT CALL AND EXPECT A THOUGHTFUL ANSWER REGARDING YOUR PAINTING (especially, do not leave a voicemail message requiring us to phone you), ... INSTEAD, Please EMAIL US (Art@BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com) along with a high resolution jpeg image of your painting. Include the name of the artist, its title, dimensions and condition. Please include any history or provenance. Rather than responding off the cuff, in a timely fashion we will read your note, do our homework, and write back and let you know if we wish to acquire your painting or we may give you our our ideas on how best to market your painting through other resources.