B. P. Avery

“ It is interesting to observe and record the beginnings of Art in a young community, and we propose to do this for San Francisco because it is the metropolis of the Pacific, where some day there will exist a distinct Art School, supported by a cultivated public taste, and where already there are more evidences of aesthetic culture than exist in any other community so isolated, so exposed to frontier influences, and so youthful. First, it should be said that the term Art is used here in the sense which restricts it to drawing, painting, sculpture and engraving. ”

“ Gazing upon it and following its suggestions rather than criticising its execution, one can imagine the feelings of that pioneer family, who, after weeks of weary travel across the wide and desolate plains of the middle continent, and days of weary climbing up rocky steeps, through many dangers real or imaginary, have reached the Pisgah of their hopes, and are looking down upon the promised land lying in its still beauty like the sleeping Princess of the story, waiting but the kiss of Enterprise to spring into energetic life. ”

“ The Art committee, in their report, expressed "their surprise and gratification at the rapid stride which the fine arts have made in our infant city," and believed that the State possessed "an abundant artistic talent, yearning to evolve itself, and fertile as our soil, which only awaits the cultivating hand of taste and wealth to foster and promote its growth." ”

“ Nahl has latterly devoted more attention to careful painting. Many works of permanent merit from his hand may be found in the private collections that are forming among our wealthy citizens, and some of these would be worthy of description if space allowed. They are fair examples of the thorough method of the French and German schools, which is not enough copied in America, where the self-culture in Art of which we hear so much is often no culture at all, and where the finest capacities often fail of the best results for lack of elementary knowledge to supply the tools of power. ”

“ If the records of Art in San Francisco are meagre, and relate more to promise than to achievement, we can remember that New York, when it was over two hundred years old and had a population of nearly 300,000, could boast of little more, and has made most of its progress within the last fifteen years. ”

“ There below them is not only the field for industry and enterprise, but a panorama of natural charms destined to inspire poets, to glow on the canvas of painters, and to take on the magic of human association and tradition. ”

“ He is distinguished for excellence of drawing, richness of finish, accuracy of detail, and brilliancy of color. Nothing that enters into his works is slightingly treated; indeed, the only objection to this fine artist is, that he is too exquisitely mechanical in some of his pieces. But we ought to be more thankful than critical over the conscientious and intelligent touch that has contributed so much to our pleasure and instruction during so many years of sordid struggle. ”

“ But during this interval wealth and taste were increasing, society was becoming fixed, and many gentlemen imported paintings of decided merit. Many artists also, of more or less merit, who came here to dig gold remained to paint. Mining was a lottery and a hardship from which they soon turned in disgust, and there was much to encourage the hope of better success in their profession. Our cosmopolitan community has always embraced an unusually large proportion of intelligent persons of refined taste. ”

“ Without much merit as a piece of painting, it is yet natural and suggestive. Mr. Jewett has been chiefly known as a portrait painter, and has been steadily employed here in that capacity down to the present day. His most notable work in that line is a life size full length of John A. Sutter, which hangs in the Capitol at Sacramento, and for which the Legislature in 1855 appropriated $5,000. The Grayson picture is in the collection of the Mercantile Library of San Francisco. ”

“ D. D. Neal, who was only eighteen years old when he exhibited a landscape in 1857, has since studied in Munich, where he married and now resides, and has made a fine reputation as an architectural painter. A picture by him attracted much attention at the exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York, 1866. His mediaeval interiors bring good prices. Several have been brought to San Francisco, where also copies of a photographic album from his drawings were sold in 1865. ”

“ Edouart, who is still here, but following the more lucrative business of photography, is an artist of culture and good taste, and has done some excellent portraits and landscapes. He is a Fleming, we believe. H. Eastman has produced some good water-color drawings of California scenery, and is well known as an engraver on wood. ”

“ He has been a fertile designer for various publications, and although in his most rapid work there is a mannerism which provokes criticism, no one has at all approached him as a popular delineator of California life and character, of some features of California scenery, of its aborigines, animals, birds and vegetation. ”