Armin Hansen (1886-1957)
Great artist of the sea. Large, powerful man, born in San Francisco, studied in Europe, signed on as a deckhand on a Norwegian trawler. Eventually located in Monterey to paint the sea and the lives of the fishermen, which led to national acclaim. Had to toss Steinbeck out of his house one evening, but they remained friends..
Maynard Dixon (1875-1946)
Giant among Western artists, up there with Remington and Russell. Understood Native Americans, a visionary artist, his work spare, taut, modern. Made his living early as an illustrator, developing his talents as a figurative artist. Influenced and was influenced by his talented wives, Dorothea Lange and Edith Hamlin.
William Ritschel (1864-1959)
Born in Germany, like Hansen combined art with an early life at sea. Became famous for his marines and images of ships. In 1918 settled on the Carmel Highlands coastline. During the 1940s had some of his gold medals for art melted down and the funds donated to the Red Cross to help in the American war effort.
George Brandriff (1890-1936)
When he wasn’t a painter, he was a dentist. A natural talent, Brandriff was basically a selt taught painter. Like Hansen and Ritschel he became fascinated by fishermen and the sea, though equally adept at recording the desert life of Southern California.
Judith Deim (1911-2006)
An important part of the group of artists, writers and poets who gathered on Cannery Row in the 1930s with Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. Later, with children in tow, traveled Eastern Europe with Gypsies, then into Africa before returning to Monterey and then into Mexico. Her portrait of Steinbeck resides at San Jose State University.
E. Charlton Fortune (18851969)
Fortune survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire and bore the stigma at the time of a cleft palate to become one of America’s greatest impressionists before turning to liturgical art, her first commission coming at St. Angela’s Catholic Church in Pacific Grove. ``Fortune’s Way, or Notes on Art for Catholics (and Others)’’ is a play on her life.
Mary DeNeale Morgan (1868-1948)
Morgan also survived the great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, actually recording much of the destruction in sketches and drawings. She then settled in Carmel and became famous for her powerful, poetic paintings of cypresses and pines..
Kate Carew (1861-1961)
Carew was another groundbreaking woman artist. She became famous as a caricaturist and writer as well as a fine artist, and currently a film is being made of her life. Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain and Jack London were people she knew, interviewed or sketched before making her home on the Monterey Peninsula.
Charles Rollo Peters (1862-1928)
Peters Gate in Monterey is named for him. He became famous for nocturnal scenes of adobes in the moonlight after personal tragedies led to sleepless nights. Whistler said Peters was the only other artist than himself who could paint nocturnes.
George Post (1906-1997)
One of California’s great watercolorists – and California produced many superb artists of watercolor – Post gave classes that were so popular he learned to paint with either hand so students crowding in would find it easier to observe his technique. Carol Steinbeck collected his work.
Paul Carey (1904-2001)
Began painting at age ten, came under the influence of the ``The Society of Six.’’ He decided he needed to become a fulltime artist when, taking a lunch break at noon to view a Cezanne in a museum, he felt a tap on the shoulder from a security guard who told him it was six p.m., closing time.
Arthur Harold Knott (1883-1997)
An early Carmel artist, one of the founders of the Carmel Art Association, a figure in Daisy Bostick’s ``Carmel Today and Yesterday.’’ Edan Hughes wrote, ``Knott captured on canvas the beauty of the Monterey Peninsula and Morro Bay of yesteryear.’’
Carl Bowman (1909-1998)
Carl studied with Spencer Macky and Alice Chittenden. Coming to the Monterey Peninsula, he became a member of the Carmel Art Association. Favorite subjects, painted with bold, abstract strokes, were landscapes and women.
Links to some gallery works for sale
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