louis sloss, jr., collection of california paintings

Louis Sloss, Jr., Collection of California PaintingsAuthor(s): Jean MartinSource: California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Mar., 1958), pp. 19-38Published by: University of California Press in association with the California Historical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25155165 .

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Louis Sloss, Jr., Collection

op

California Paintings

By Jean Martin

Mid golden clouds of sunset fuming up

From everlasting censers of the West

Set to thy lips mine unbetraying cup.

And send thy soul on an immortal quest!

George Sterling, California to the Artist

San Francisco

California Historical Society

April and May, 1958



These paintings have been placed on deposit with the

California Historical Society

by the

San Francisco Art Association



The Collector

WHEN Louis Sloss, Jr., died in 1933, he bequeathed to the San Francisco Art Association his collection of

fifty-one paintings by thirty-six artists, mostly identi

fied with California. Mr. Sloss was the son of a San Francisco

pioneer who had made a fortune in the Alaska fur trade and in

mining. Conscious of the responsibilities of great wealth, he and

his family were active in many of the charitable and cultural or

ganizations of San Francisco, including the San Francisco Art

Association. Among other services to the Association, Mr. and

Mrs. Louis Sloss were on the reception committee of its annual

Mardi Gras ball in 1897, and the son took part in the staging of

the 1904 ball. The San Francisco Art Association was founded in 1871. With

the idea that art was not receiving enough support or recogni

tion, artists such as Virgil Williams and Samuel Marsden Brookes

rallied their friends and formed the group. It was felt that there

were not enough artists in San Francisco at that time to support such an association and its projected exhibitions and school, so

membership was offered to non-artists, as "lay members." Since

the Association soon became fashionable, its continuance was

assured. It took hold and became a force in San Francisco, along with the Bohemian Club, which was at that time devoted to art

and artists.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Louis Sloss, Jr., joined both these organizations and eventually became a patron of art

and a collector. His interest in art was in no way professional; he was an amateur collector. An interest in the past is clearly evi

dent in his collection, but so is an interest in contemporary artists.

To satisfy the former interest he purchased Tavernier, Hill, and

Keith; for the latter, Pages, Wores, Hudson, and Peters. Since

[21]



some of the artists represented sold their works only through S. and G. Gump's Galleries, apparently Mr. Sloss dealt with this

firm. He was acquainted with A. L. Gump. There are two noticeable tendencies in the collection: Mr. Sloss

bought paintings chiefly of the smaller sizes and chiefly by Cali fornia artists. He was not interested in the large, heroic canvases

being painted. Mr. Sloss was realistic about his collection, and

knew that it was not the very best that could have been made.

He knew that as time passed some of his pictures would no longer be considered of major standing, but he felt justified in leaving the entire collection to the San Francisco Art Association with

the idea of its forming the nucleus of a permanent collection. He

was alert to quality, and some of his canvases are among the most

refined pictures painted in California during this period.

The Collection

The paintings of the Sloss Collection are from an exciting pe

riod in the history of California art. They encompass the time

when art in California was undergoing a profound change. From

the school of picturesque California scenery, painted for patrons

intensely interested in that scenery, it moved outward toward a

widening horizon. The men who first painted in California painted the land as if it were the eighth wonder of the world; their de scendants painted it from the point of view of art as an autono

mous activity in which subject matter was of secondary impor tance.

The Sloss Collection begins in the late 1870's with men like Thomas Hill and Jules Tavernier. These two artists are from the

old school; they were enchanted by the grandeur of California

scenery. Though these men were not born here, their paintings are among the finest made in California at that time. They came

West and painted California with an intensity that seeing some

[22]



thing for the first time can bring out in an artist. The landscape

gripped the artistic imagination, and pictures were frequently made for people in the East who could not or did not wish to make the long trip West.

Although the taste of the times did not permit private homes to display on their walls full-blown European nudes of Cleopatra or Delilah (because, presumably, they were not suitable for the

eyes of women and children), the saloons and restaurants were

covering their walls with these European beauties. It has even

been said that the first art galleries in San Francisco were these

establishments. European art was being imported continually, but there was at the same time a movement for an art that was

nearer the people of this area. The California Art Gallery reports in its first issue of 1873,

There has recently been a growing disposition on the part of the

wealthier classes of our population to adorn their residences with

works of art, and our local artists, notwithstanding their num

bers, are beginning to command a more intelligent appreciation, and a more liberal patronage than ever before. Those of them who

have been so fortunate as to win recognition (a circumstance

which does not always depend exclusively upon talent and pro

fessional merit) obtain good, though seldom extravagant prices

for their works. The skill of the upholsterer is no longer considered

all that is needed to adorn the homes of the prosperous: and pic tures are not?generally at least?purchased as mere articles of

parlor furniture. Neither is it now accepted as an article of popu lar belief among us that a copy from the galleries of Rome, or

Paris, or Munich, must of necessity be worth a higher price than a picture by a California Artist.

It was at this time that the wealthy men who had made for tunes in the bonanza years realized that it was possible for good art to be produced right here in their own state; up to this time it had been fashionable for the more prominent citizens to pur chase huge paintings of classical subjects, imported from Europe.

Railroad and banking barons gave recognition to art in Califor

[23]



nia. They bought large paintings of Yosemite Valley and Mount

Whitney. They were willing to spend a small fortune for an early Keith or Tavernier or Thomas Hill. The artists of the West Coast

in the 1870's and 80's could have confidence in finding a market

for their paintings where they painted.

During the next twenty years a change took place in California

art. Painters looked once more at the hills and valleys of the state.

They renewed their image of the land and made it a vehicle for

their art. Before this, patrons of art bought literary paintings of

the West Coast; to these men they served as travelogues, journal istic reports of places they had once seen and wished to remember, or where they could never go. But as traditions of art in California

grew, factual representation of localities of the state became less

important, and by 1890 the artist demanded that his picture be

a work of visual art and not mere painted scenery. One man who in his own career illustrated this change was

William Keith. He began painting in California, and in his first

period he followed the method of Tavernier and Hill. His early paintings, depicting such splendors of California as "The Head

waters of the San Joaquin/' are literal transcriptions of nature

onto canvas. Well done, certainly, but they are completely with

out the artistic and aesthetic self-awareness which was to become, as the forty-odd years of his creative life passed, the dominant

quality of his art. These early works are objective paintings, done

with a cool reserve on the artist's part; they are made by a man

who is like a camera before a scene whose might and primeval strangeness he can encompass and portray only through reserve

and self-sufficiency. Space is clear and deep in them, the air usu

ally crystalline, like the color; forms are accurately drawn, fully realized in volume, and simply organized within the space of the

picture. Most of these early works were developed from sketches

of particular scenes and they ring with the particularity of place and of time that Eakins has, or Canaletto.

Later, during what could roughly be called his middle period, Keith lost some of the specificity of place. Although his land

[24]



Louis Sloss, Jr.



Emil Carlsen, 1853-1932 Still Life



..***? * ;;;:# .:

Jw fe* Tavernier, 1844 -1889

April Showers, Napa Valley



scapes still bore such titles as "Mt. Tamalpais," the true subject has shifted from the aspects of the land, its hills and rivers and

how they turn and are colored, to a more subjective phenomenon

perceived by the artist with his emotional rather than his ana

tomical eye. Thus this "Mt. Tamalpais" becomes a lyric of the

atmospheres. Forms have stronger movements in his pictures now, the color is harmonized more on a pervasive single tone, and

the pictures tend to be smaller. The artist now mixes himself with

his subject and begins to find his picture in his soul. It was to this

search that the last of Keith's work was devoted.

From the last period of Keith's life comes the "Summer Show

ers" of the Sloss Collection. Places and events now have become

mere recollections, pretexts for form. This picture and most of his

other late works may be turned sideways or upside down and be

viewed almost as meaningfully as in their usual positions. Keith

has now come at last to find his picture almost exclusively in his

soul. Although he continues to sketch external nature, he sees

there only the image he sees in himself. This image has become one in which light and darkness endlessly entangle and exchange their places and in which the figures of women, solitary or with a few companions, await beneath great oaks, in a last dim ray from a late sun, the death of day. Keith's art and its evolution is

the epitome of all art in California during this time. It is also the

summit of that art because, insofar as an artist strove toward

value in those years, he strove in the image of Keith, shifting

slowly as Keith had, working in the relationships between artist

and subject that Keith developed.

* # #

In the 1870's, with the development of the California School of

Design (later the California School of Fine Arts), training in art became available on the West Coast. The two types of artists who had made up the first period of American art in California, the

self-taught primitive and the New York-trained professional, whose interaction upon one another through art organizations

[25]



and the taste of the buying public had created something of a

California style, began to disappear from the scene. By 1880 the

rising artist was one who had received his training at the Califor

nia School of Design under European-trained teachers, and would

soon leave for a stay in Europe to complete his training. Because

of this, art in California began at this time?and continued

throughout all ensuing periods?to mirror the conception of art

held in intellectually advanced circles throughout the Western

world.

Fostering the development of the cosmopolitan artists was the

existence in San Francisco of the cosmopolitan collector. The rich

began to become cultured, the cultured to travel in Europe, and

everyone to realize that beauty was not merely a matter of place.

Beauty, it was felt, was an emanation, an attitude, an emotion.

It was a matter of the individual who experienced it, not so much

of the object which inspired the emotion. Artists like Jules Pages

stayed many years in France and painted French life, finding a

ready market in San Francisco. Theodore Wores found in Japan

subjects which delighted romantic Californians. Simultaneously with the discovery by California patrons that pictures of some

other place could be beautiful came the discovery that their own

scene, painted in the advancing subjectivity which was the mark

of the age, could have an equal beauty. So Grace Hudson returned

to her home in Ukiah and painted the native Indians for cultured

San Franciscans. Francis McComas painted cypresses and des

erts infused with a sense of nature, poetry, and style which har

monized with the homes and lives of the culturally-minded of the

turn of the century. Maynard Dixon roamed about the West

painting cowboys, Indians, and the desert for stay-at-homes.

* * *

In 1933 Junius Cravens wrote in a newspaper account of the

Sloss bequest, that considered as a whole the Collection "is inter

esting chiefly as a cross-section of California art during the late

years of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twenti

[26]



eth century. Such names as Keith, Tavernier, Hill, Pages, and

Peters were among the most important ones of their day and still

hold their places." He began his next sentence, "though consist

ently old school." From the standpoint of the social realism of the

1930's these paintings must indeed have seemed "old school," but

from this slightly further remove they do not suggest one old

school but many diverse individuals, each reacting to a tide that

was to affect all. During these years art in California grew, broke

the bounds of provincialism, and began to move into the stream

of national art.

[27]



Catalogue

Breuer, Henry Joseph: Landscape oil on copper, 10% x 8%

Born Philadelphia, Pa., 1860. Studied Cincinnati, New York and

Paris. Worked principally in California as a landscape painter for

thirty years. TWo of his pictures mentioned in Art In California

(1916) as having been shown with the Exhibition of American

Masterpieces at Berlin.

Burgdorff, Ferdinand: Monterey

pastel on paper, 11 x 10%

Born Cleveland, Ohio, 1883. Studied: Cleveland School of Art and in Paris. Active in California from ca. 1910.

Carlsen, Emil: Still Life oil on canvas, 30 x 25

Still Life with Fish oil on canvas, 25 x SO1/^

Born Denmark, 1853. Studied in Copenhagen and under Vallon

in Paris. Came to the United States in 1872. Director of the

California School of Design, 1887-1889. Member of Society of

American Artists and Associate of the National Academy. Died

in eastern U. S. 1932. Memorial exhibition, New York, 1957.

[29]



Coulter, W. A.: Full Rigged Ship oil on canvas, 30% x 20%

Began as an artist on the San Francisco Call. Noted as a marine

artist in San Francisco by 1873. Best known for his pictures of

sailing vessels. Died in California, 1936.

Coutts, Alice: Indian Papoose

oil on panel, 8x6

Little information is available on this painter. However, it is

known that she was roughly contemporary with Grace Hudson

(see below), that she modeled her work on the work of this artist

both in style and subject, and that her paintings are often con

fused at the present time with paintings by her model.

Dickman, Charles: Cypress Point, Monterey oil on canvas, 22% x 37%

Sunset on Carmel Coast,

Monterey

oil on canvas, 24 x 60

Born in Germany, 1863. Came to California in 1882. Studied at

the California School of Design and in Paris at the academies Julien and Colorossi. Member of the International Jury of

Awards, Panama Pacific International Exposition, 1915.

Dixon, Maynard: Sunshine and Rain

oil on canvas, 20 x 30%

Born in Fresno, 1875. Spent his childhood in the San Joaquin

Valley. At 16 sent his sketchbook to Frederick Remington, who

[30]



encouraged him to become an artist. Began his career as a news

paperman and illustrator. Went to New York ca. 1906, returning to San Francisco in 1912. Never again left the West. Executed

murals for the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the California State Library, the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and a

number of post offices. Was a member of the Bohemian Club.

Died 1946.

Gamble, John M.: Wild Buckwheat


Born Morristown, New Jersey, 1863. Studied San Francisco

School of Design under Virgil Williams and Emil Carlsen; also at the Academie Julien, Paris. Specialized in painting landscapes

with wildflowers.

Gray, Percy: Eucalyptus watercolor on paper, 20% x 16}4

Eucalyptus watercolor on paper, 14% x lO1^

The Oaks

watercolor, 10^ x 141/4

Born in San Francisco, 1869. Studied California School of Design; Art Students League, New York, under William Merritt Chase;

Stuttgart, Munich, and Antwerp. Exhibited: various galleries and clubs in San Francisco. Bronze medal, Panama Pacific Inter

national Exposition, 1915.

Greenbaum, Joseph: Landscape oil on canvas, 14 x 10

[31]



Born in New York, 1864. Studied California School of Design; in Paris under Lefebvre, Robert, Fleury, Doucet, and Humbert; and

in Munich under Carl Marr.

Hill, Thomas: Foothills Near Raymond oil on canvas, 14% x 22

Born in Birmingham, England, 1829. Family came to America in

1840 and settled in Taunton, Mass. At an early age showed artis

tic talent, his first important work being painted in Philadelphia in 1853 when he was a member of the Old Graphic Club. In 1853 received his first medal at the Maryland Institute, Baltimore. In

1861 came to California for the benefit of his health. Opened a studio in San Francisco, where he received the first prize of the

Art Union for the Trial Scene in the Merchant of Venice. Went to

Paris in 1866 and studied with Paul Meyerheim, after which he

devoted himself almost exclusively to landscape. Taking up his

residence in Boston in 1867, painted several notable pictures in

cluding the Yosemite Valley and White Mountain Notch. Ill health compelled him to return to California, where he was soon

able to resume his work. At the Centennial Exposition, Phila

delphia, 1876, was awarded the first medal for landscape paint

ing. Died near Raymond, California, 1908.

Hudson, Grace: Doctor Kolba, Medicine Man

oil on canvas, 12x8

Little Mendocino


Born in Ukiah, California. Entered the California School of De

sign in 1882, remained until 1885, working under the instruction

of Virgil Williams. Made a specialty of pictures of the Indians of

[32]



her native county, in which she achieved marked success. Died

1937.

Jorgensen, Christian: San Francisco Waterfront

watercolor, 23^4 x 19%

Born Oslo, Norway, 1860. Came to the United States in 1870.

First student to enroll in the California School of Design. Achieved fame with paintings of Y)semite, the Sierra Nevada, and the California desert. Was a recognized portraitist through his paintings of Abraham Lincoln. With George Sterling was one

of the founders of the Carmel artists colony.

Joullin, Amedee: Rio Puerco, New Mexico


Born in San Francisco, 1862. Studied: Beaux Arts, Paris, in San

Francisco with Jules Tavernier. Instructor of the California

School of Design 1887-1897. The bulk of his work is devoted to

depicting the Indians of California. Died in San Francisco, 1917.

Keith, William: Summer Showers

oil on canvas, 8% x 16

Springtime in Santa Clara Valley oil on canvas, 17 x 28

Mount Tamalpais

from San Rafael oil on canvas, 27^ x 21

Born in Scotland, 1839. Studied under Achenbach and Carl Marr, and spent some time at work in Paris. Engraver until 1859, when

[33]



he came to California, where, with the exception of occasional

visits to Europe, he resided. Best known for his landscapes, which have achieved for him a reputation throughout the United

States. Died Berkeley, 1911.

McComas, Francis: Indian Village

watercolor, 22 x 28

Born Fingal, Tasmania, 1875. Studied: Julien Academy, Paris.

Came to California and established his home in Monterey in 1895. Famous for his paintings of cypress groves and trees. Died

in San Francisco, 1938. His ashes buried beneath a large boulder

at Cypress Point, one of the spots he made famous.

Mathews, Arthur F.: The Three Graces

oil on wood panel, 22% x 19

Born in Wisconsin in 1860. Came to California while very young. Studied: Julien Academy, Paris, under Boulanger and Lefebvre, where he was awarded the first medal for painting and composi tion. Became an instructor in the California School of Design in

1889, and was director there from 1890 to 1906. Won the James

D. Phelan award for best picture on an historical theme in 1896, for painting entitled The Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco

by Portola. This painting was presented to the San Francisco Art

Association in 1896 and was rescued from the 1906 fire and is still

in the possession of the Association.

Mathieson, J. Muir: Landscape oil on cardboard, 9 x 10%

Little information available on this artist at the present time.

[34]



Pages, Jules: Boats at Saint Tropez


Old Town of Moret oil on canvas, 24 x 18%

Born in 1867 in San Francisco, where his father was an engraver. Studied at California School of Design and in Paris. Pursued his career as an artist in Paris, where he received the highest honors.

Made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Many of his pictures

hang in the Luxembourg Museum. Returned to San Francisco in

1941 as a fugitive from the German Occupation. Died in San

Francisco in 1946.

Peters, Charles Rollo: Moonlight oil on canvas, 19% x 25%

The Corral

oil on canvas, 30^ x 48%

Born in California, 1862. Studied: California School of Design under Virgil Williams; in Paris under Boulanger and Lefebvre.

Was well known for his night scenes and his paintings of the adobe

buildings around Monterey. Died in San Francisco, 1928.

Raschen, Henry: Indian Camp near Fort Ross


Born Oldenburg, Germany, 1856. Family emigrated to Fort Ross,

California, in 1868. Studied: California School of Design and later

in Munich and Paris. Well known for his paintings of the Indians

of the West. Met with success in Europe as well as the United

States. After the fire of 1906 moved to Alameda and then to Oak

land. Died in Oakland in 1937.

[35]



Rix, Julian: Storm Over the Divide


Mount Tamalpais oil on canvas, 10% x 14

After the Rain, Palo Alto oil on canvas, 24% x 42%

Born Peacham, Vermont, 1850. Family came to San Francisco in

1854. Self-taught painter. For some years occupied a studio with

Jules Tavernier at 728 Montgomery, San Francisco. Died San

Francisco, 1903.

Robinson, Charles Dorman: Moonlight on the Ocean

(San Francisco Beach) oil on canvas, 12% x 20%

Mount Tamalpais oil on canvas, 22% x 16%

Off the Farallone Islands oil on canvas, 32 x 43%

Born in Vermont, 1847. Studied under William Bradford, George Inness, I. F. Cropsey in the United States; in Paris under Segan tini and Boudin. Many of his works are in the collection of the

royal family of England, also represented in India, Australia, New Zealand, and France. Principally a painter of mountain and

marine subjects. Never competed for any public honors, although he won all the prizes at the San Francisco Art Association show

in 1878. Died in 1933.

Tavernier, Jules: April Showers, Napa Valley oil on canvas, 30% x 20

Born in Paris, 1844. Was a student of Felix Barris and achieved

[36]



some success in France before the Franco-Prussian War, in which

he fought. Came to this country in 1871 and was an illustrator for

the New York Graphic and Harper s Weekly. In 1873 was sent on

a sketching trip of the West ending in San Francisco, where he

chose to remain. Enjoyed a reputation of some note in San Fran

cisco and was a member of the Bohemian Club. Due to his recur

rent monetary difficulties was forced to leave San Francisco and

made his way to Hawaii in 1884. Died in Honolulu in 1889.

Welch, Thaddeus: The Steep Ravine

oil on canvas, 20% x 36%

Rocky Point, Bolinas


Born in Oregon. Came to California in 1866 as a tramp printer. Left for Europe in 1880 and while there won three bronze medals

in exhibitions in Munich and Paris. Died in California, 1919.

Wores, Theodore: A California Garden


Born in San Francisco, 1858. Studied: California School of De

sign; Munich, Paris, Rome, and Venice, where he met Whistler

and used his etching process of canal scenes. Returned and had

his first United States exhibition in 1881. Went to Japan in 1885 and remained three years. Died in San Francisco, 1939.

Yelland, Raymond D.: Russian River

oil on canvas, 11% x 15%

Born in England, 1848. Came to the United States when a youth and studied at the National Academy. Was also a pupil of James

Brevoort and William Page. Died in 1900.

[37]



Paintings in the Sloss Bequest not shown in the 1958 exhibition at the California Historical Society.

Miro, G.: La Porte St. Denis

Innocenti: Landscape and Figures

Kotchenreiter, G.: Landscape

Van Der Weyden: Moonlight, Picardy

Unknown: Man in Red Jacket

[18]



louis sloss, jr., collection of california paintings

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