After studying art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Harry Emerson Lewis used his art training in the U.S. Army during WWI, teaching camoulflage techniques. After the war, he remained in Europe, studying in Italy and France including the Sorbonne in Paris. Returning to the U.S., he worked as an artist in Boston working in the studio of Alexander Robinson. Next, he both attended and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago until he moved to California in 1924. Seven years later, in 1931 he moved north to San Francisco, settling in the Marin community of Corte Madera. He moved back to Southern California in 1945, settling in Laguna Beach.

The painting above Bodega Bay (scene of Bodega Head) was painted while Emerson Lewis lived in Corte Madera from 1931-1943. It was exhibited in the fifth annual Art Exhibtion of the Bay Region Art Association of 1939, so the painting was done before that time, as early as 1931.